If you are concerned about radiation, don’t fly, scanners or no.
At altitude, the cosmic ray dose rate is over 200 uREM per hour and has been measured at 660 uREM/hour.
The radiation is gamma, xrays, and various particles including neutrons. Some comes from the interaction of the cosmic ray secondaries on the skin of the plane.
The xray scanner at the airport is limited to 25 uREM, or about 8 minutes sitting in your seat at 30,000 feet. And though the Fed limit is 25 uREM, the measured doses have been less, 9 to 10 uREM.
Background radiation on the ground is about 25 uREM/hour, depending on where you live, and is mostly from potassium 40 and Thallium 206. It’s much higher in some places, depending on minerals and altitude.
What sort of risk do the scanner operators, even if they close only four hours per day over a number of years, have ?
Are the pilot and crew concerns on the extra radiation valid ?
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