New security rules took effect today at two major British airports that require selected passengers to undergo full body scans. If they refuse, they will not be allowed to board a flight.
The regulations follow increased worldwide concern after the attempt to blow up a plane as it approached Detroit on Christmas Day and the arrest of a Nigerian passenger who allegedly had a bomb in his underwear. The plane had taken off from Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, and the Netherlands immediately began scanning of passengers bound for the U.S.
Jon Super, AP
Workers demonstrate a full body scanner Jan. 7 at Britain's Manchester Airport, one of two major British airports that require some passengers to go through full scans.
In a message to the U.K. Parliament, transport secretary Lord Adonis predicted that only a few people would be affected, but made it clear that for those who decline to be scanned "they will not be permitted to fly."
The new policy also applies to those under 18, after the government overturned a rule that excluded them.
The scanners were installed at Heathrow airport in London, and at Manchester on Monday. Others will be installed at Birmingham, in the English Midlands, later this month.
In the U.S. a total of 40 whole-body scanners are installed in about 19 airports. Six of them are used as the primary screening devices; the others are used only as backup after full-body pat downs. A total of at least 450 scanners are planned to be installed this year at airports throughout the U.S., according to recent testimony by the Secretary of the Homeland Security Department, Janet Napolitano.
But use of the full-body scanners, under U.S. regulations, will remain voluntary, a public affairs official at the Transportation Security Administration, Greg Soule, said today. A full-body pat down is the alternative screening process.
Opposition to full-body scanning centers mainly on the fact that the re.sults show all parts of a person's body, including genitalia. Many rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have expressed concern that the images would be retained, posing a threat to passengers' privacy rights, although keeping the images is forbidden under U.S. regulations.
"If a celebrity goes through a scanner that kind of image could end up on the Internet," said Jay Stanley, an ACLU privacy expert. The group also maintains that the scanners are not foolproof in being able to find explosives, which could be hidden a body cavity.
In a USA Today/Gallup Poll this month, however, 78 percent of respondents said they approved of using scanners, and 67 percent said they had no concerns about being examined by one.
Britain's transportation department has issued an interim code covering privacy, health and safety, data protection and equality issues. "The code will require airports to undertake scanning sensitively, having regard to the rights of passengers," Lord Adonis said.
An official at Manchester airport said the equipment does not allow security staff to see passengers naked, and cannot be "stored or captured."
A similar code of conduct is followed in the U.S. The security officer guiding the passenger through the machine never sees the image, and the employee viewing the scan must be based in a secure room, away from the passenger.
After the Detroit scare, the Obama administration decided this month to mandate extra security for people flying to the U.S. from 14 countries, most of them mainly Muslim.
Under the new rules, all citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen must be given a pat down before boarding a flight to the U.S. The same rules now apply to citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.
