How Will Body Scanners Affect Frequent Fliers, Children, Pregnant Women?

Chicago - The full body scanner image shows everything -- every fold, wrinkle and hopefully any hidden weapon.

The technology is called “backscatter radiation,” but all radiation carries a potential risk for cancer. How much risk does this new screening, then, pose to travelers?

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ADDITIONAL COVERAGE:

• Body Scanners Bound for O'Hare
• Airline Attack Could Mean More Scanners

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At least one radiation physicist said travelers have nothing to worry about.

“It's a minimal dose of radiation hazard,” said Matthew Hadden, a University of Chicago physicist.

Hadden said the vast majority of radiation people are exposed to comes from the outside world.

In fact, according to him, you would have to endure 5,000 full-body screenings to equal one chest X-Ray.

At O’Hare International Airport passengers still had questions.

What about frequent fliers?

Experts said fliers get 100 times more radiation exposure on a two-hour flight than in a single screening.

What about children? Or pregnant women?

"Children do respond differently to radiation, but this is low enough where it should not affect any child of any age going through it,” Hadden said.

And that leaves the other kind of over-exposure risk -- the naked picture kind.

In Europe where the machines are already in wider use, the Pope has denounced the screening as a violation of human dignity. Images of celebrity passengers have already popped up on the internet.