MEP slams Manchester Airport ‘peep show’ scanners
14.10.09
The decision by Manchester Airport to trial full-body scanners that create a near naked picture of passengers has been slammed by a West Midlands MEP. Conservative MEP Philip Bradbourn said he was ‘outraged’, and viewed the body-scanners as ‘wholly disproportionate to the threat’ posed by terrorism.
The European Commission had previously made the decision to withdraw plans to implement the body-scanners in airports by April 2010. The decision of Manchester Airport to run the trial was described as ‘baffling’ by Mr Bradbourn, ‘given the precedent set by the European Commission’.
The X-ray machine produces ‘naked’ images of passengers that show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers' private parts. The airport says it will speed up security checks by quickly revealing any concealed weapons or explosives and avoid the need for passengers to take coats, belts and shoes off.
The scanners, which cost £80,000 each, work by beaming electromagnetic waves on to passengers while they stand in a booth. A virtual three-dimensional image is then created from the reflected energy. The scanners, made by RapiScan Systems, have already been tried in New York, Los Angeles and Heathrow.
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