Airport full body scan - when pregnant? « Back to Group Discussions

[Jend1002]

I have several trips planned over the course of my pregnancy and my local airport just got the full body scanners.  Truthfully, I never really learned much about them because I was fine with the idea in the past.  But now that I am pregnant, I wonder what this scan really does.  I don't want to be paranoid, but any thoughts on this?  I imagine you could opt for a regular screen? 

[goin' green]

You can opt out.  I wouldn't go in them not pregnant, myself, so I fully plan on opting out.  

[2sweetsparrows]

I say don't do them- ever since trying to conceive I have opted out- my dh is a electrical Radio frequency engineer- he has explained to me why different things are bad- some are afraid of the ultrasounds- they are little sound waves sent out and bounce back to create a broken image- the airport scan is like getting an x-ray- it is radiation which can affect the growth of cells.  I am not the type to be overly crunchy or super paranoid about things but this is one I opt out for sure.

I just make an extra 15 min and they just do a quick body pat down thing and they are very nice and explain things- at least at the airports I have been to.  

Good luck with your travels!

[mole]

I just did a bunch of traveling and opted out of all the full body scanners. Every pat-down person was extremely respectful, and it does not take much time. I have no idea if the scanner is harmful to me or the fetus, and I don't even know how I could find out for sure. But I like opting out anyway- I feel like it is an act of solidarity with people who are scared/unable to do the body scans because of sexual abuse or whatever reasons, and I also think it's important to resist these encroachments on our personal liberties. These scanners do not make us safer, and I do not want to submit to processes that I think are only in place to create a population of people who will submit unquestioning to authority. 

[hyde]

I just got back from a trip and wanted to report a positive experience. From the reading I'd done it looks like things don't always go so smoothly (depends on the agent you get, I guess), so I got to the airport a bit earlier on each leg just in case. But when they went to direct me to the full-body scanner I told the agent I was pregnant and asked if I could just go through the metal detector instead, and he let me through with no problem whatsoever. (Return flight there were only metal detectors, so no problem.) I've got a fair bit of travel coming up, and I plan to continue opting out, so it's reassuring to hear that it hasn't been a problem for other people!

[2sweetsparrows]

here is a good article- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126833083

It doesn't really explain what to do just explores the subject- flying exposes you to radiation so minimizing it as much as possible is important to me.