[IP] SUMMERY FAA apparently readying plans to x-ray passengers
WITH each of the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London
over the last several years, new and increasingly complex questions
have arisen for security experts, posing fresh challenges.
..."I think that as we make the decision to roll out and go to pilot
tests and move forward, we need to be sure we're doing it in a
responsible manner," said the agency's chief technology officer and
assistant administrator, Clifford Wilke.
...The agency said it did not have a specific timeline, but
statements made in early August by the two manufacturers of the
technology - American Science and Engineering and Rapiscan Systems, a
division of the OSI Systems electronics company - indicated that the
plans could be made public within the next two months.
One reason the agency may be ready to go forward is that it has found
what some see as a middle ground between security and privacy:
"cloaking" software that turns the explicit images into something
resembling a generic chalk outline of the body, identifying plastic,
ceramic, biological and other nonmetallic and metallic objects on the
body. American Science and Engineering said it felt its cloaking
software - first introduced in July during testimony before a House
of Representatives committee - adequately addressed privacy concerns.
"If you look at backscatter images in their raw form, they're pretty
explicit, no doubt about it," said Bob Postle, American Science's
vice president of sales and marketing.
...Since a backscatter's purpose is to detect both metallic and
nonmetallic objects, manufacturers said the suggestion that
backscatter be used as a follow-up to metal detection - the way
physical pat-down searches are often used today - defeats the
technology's advantages.
"It's the guy, randomly, that's not making the sucker go beep that
you want to take a look at," said Peter Williamson, vice president
for global sales of Rapiscan, who says that his company already
supplies around half the country's airports with metal detectors.
...Both manufacturers' machines fall well under voluntary standards
put forth by the American National Standards Institute as well as
limits outlined in a report by the National Council on Radiation
Protection and Measurements in 2002.
..."If you multiply that very small risk by, shall we say, 700
million, which is the number of people, roughly, who use airports in
this country, then you've got a significant public health issue that
one should be concerned about," Mr. Brenner said.
...Yet, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements
report says the levels of radiation from backscatters fall well
within the acceptable, lower limits for children and pregnant women.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/travel/09xray.html
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