Doses to the scanned individual and to the operator from an X-ray body scanner system

The X-ray body scanner (BS) is going to find common use as a body-checking equipment at the entrance borders of countries, to find illicit drugs or forbidden items which have been hidden inside the body cavities, or attached to the body parts of the passengers. Considering the tissue weighting factors of the sensitive organs, the total effective dose due to the scanning by the system was estimated to be 3.8 μSv per scan. The ambient dose equivalent rates within the distance range of 300-40 cm from the X-ray generator were measured to be 4.5 up to 50 μSv h-1. It is concluded that, in general, BS systems could be a safe device for the operators and people who are being scanned. But using such systems should be justified for everybody and special care should be taken for children and pregnant ladies. (authors)