Airport Scanners

[UppityStitch]

I might be being totally irrational here. I'm due to fly on Tuesday and I'm 23 weeks. Is it okay to go through the full body scanner? I know the metal detector ones are okay (I think). If not can you opt out?

I was reading about this the other day, they do contain radiation but supposedly don’t penetrate the skin so they are deemed safe for pregnant ladies. You can refuse a full body scan if you’re not comfortable, it means you’ll just have a pat down.

I flew at 34 weeks (so visibly pregnant to security staff) - set the alarm off so went in one.
No negative affect that I can tell. You're only in there about 3 seconds.
I did find baby was very active on the plane!

You can refuse the full body scan. I did when I was pregnant.

I've been reading up on this too lately and I wouldn't worry about it. There haven't been lots of studies but the evidence we do have is that the dose of radiation is extremely low and does not penetrate to internal organs (i.e. the uterus).

You can opt out though and ask for a pat-down, but it can mean waiting for someone to be available to do it so maybe leave some extra time when heading to the airport.
The flight itself actually carries more radiation due to cosmic radiation. IIRC a 7hr flight in the Northern Hemisphere carries about the same radiation dose as a chest x-ray. There is varying guidance around the world about how much overall radiation it's OK to receive during pregnancy, but a flight plus scan is way below the most conservative estimate.

The guidance from the health protection agency (national public health body) is a bit old but I believe still valid as the machines haven't changed - "HPA recommends a dose constraint of 300 micro Sv/year to a member of the public from practices involving the deliberate use of ionising radiation sources. A passenger would need to be examined 5000 times before exceeding this constraint value (based on three scans per examination). It is concluded that the potential doses received from the use of a correctly installed and used x-ray backscatter body scanner are likely to be very low. Even in the case of frequent fliers the doses are unlikely to exceed 20 micro Sv/year.”

(Health Protection Agency, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards. MacDonald A, Tattersall P, O’Hagan J, Meara J, Paynter R, Shaw P. Assessment of comparative ionising radiation doses from the use of rapiscan secure 1000 x-ray backscatter body scanner. Health Protection Agency, January 2010)

Thank you for all your replies everyone, they were very helpful.

I’ve been through them in all of my pregnancies and everything was fine, I wouldn’t worry too much. Have a nice holiday!