Written question asked by Mike Weatherley (Conservative) on Wednesday, 1 December 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 3 December 2010. It was answered by Theresa Villiers (Conservative) on Monday, 20 December 2010 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Aviation: Security

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the cumulative effect of regular use of bodyscanners on those who are already subject to higher than average levels of cosmic radiation, including pilots.

Answer: The Department for Transport commissioned advice from the UK Heath Protection Agency (HPA) on the effective dose of radiation from a back-scatter security scanner.The HPA concluded that the effective dose from one scan is 0.02 micro Sv or less. This compares with the effective dose received for 1.4 minutes flying at airline cruising height of 0.12 micro Sv. The HPA recommends a dose constraint of 300 micro Sv/year to a member of the public from practices involving the deliberate use of ionising radiation sources.Given the very significant difference between the effective dose from a back-scatter security scanner and the HPA's annual recommended dose constraint, the Department for Transport has not considered it necessary to commission research on the cumulative effects beyond this limit.The HPA assessment was published on the DFT website on 1 February 2010.

Secondary information