The new technology, called Automated Target Recognition, will be installed on millimeter wave machines, which make up about half of the 488 full-body scanners in use at U.S. airports. Images will no longer be passenger-specific, but instead will “auto-detect items that could pose a potential threat using a generic outline of a person for all passengers,” according to the TSA statement. However, both the millimeter wave and backscatter x-ray devices will continue to emit radiation that respected health authorities have warned will cause cancer. Despite claims to the contrary, the millimeter wave machines tear apart DNA to produce their image, while the backscatter devices fire ionizing radiation into the body. Numerous highly respected universities and health bodies, including John Hopkins, Columbia University, the University of California, and the Inter Agency Committee On Radiation, have all warned that the health threat posed by the scanners has not been properly studied and could lead to increased cancer rates.
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