Originally Posted by
Ruthalaska
I am pregnant and I'm especially concerned about the possible health effects of the body scanner on my baby. Any chance they'll be sensitive to this concern and let me not be "randomly" chosen for a scan if I don't alarm the WTMD? If it matters, I'll be visibly pregnant by then. Would a letter from my doctor advising me to avoid the scanners help?
I haven't had direct experience but I looked into it last year when I had the option of going to Manchester, and I wrote to the security office at MAN. My two thoughts:
- on the plus side, if you make sure you don't alarm the WTMD, I think you're pretty safe. I asked whether people who do alarm it (I have a hip implant) would get 'scoped and got a weaselly "we can't say" answer. So my advice would be to avoid any metal at all in clothing, put any jewelry or watch (deep) in your carry-on, etc.
- on the minus side, they've taken the (bad, unsupported, deceptive
) US gov't advice that the x-ray scanners are "safe" even for pregnant women. I don't think a letter from your doctor is going to be any help, so I wouldn't bother. See this thread:
LINK There was also information recently
LINK - see post #19 about how to avoid the scanners by choosing one end of the checkpoint area.