TULSA -- Tulsa will be among 14 airports receiving millimeter-wave technology scanning machines before the end of the year, Transportation Security Administration officials said.
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The $170,000 machine will be deployed at Tulsa International's security checkpoints to augment the metal detectors passengers must pass through as their carry-on bags are X-rayed.
If a passenger is selected for secondary screening, he or she may volunteer for millimeter-wave screening or choose a physical pat-down by a TSA officer, TSA officials said.
Resembling phone booths, millimeter-wave machines direct radio waves that penetrate the clothing of a passenger to reveal contraband such as concealed weapons, explosives or drugs.
The beams of radio frequency energy directed at passengers by millimeter-wave machines are 10,000 times less powerful than a cell phone transmission, eliminating health concerns of competing technologies using harmful electromagnetic radiation, TSA officials said.
"In Phoenix (Sky-Harbor International Airport) during the pilot program last fall, more than 90 percent of passengers opted for millimeter-wave scanning instead of the pat-down," said TSA spokesman Carrie Harmon.
Millimeter-wave technology, also known as whole-body imaging, is controversial among privacy advocates and civil libertarians because the radio frequency energy reflected back from the passenger creates a three-dimensional image of the traveler's body displayed on a TSA monitor.
But TSA executives say the passenger's face is blurred by millimeter-wave security features. Also, security officers tending the monitors are placed at a distance from the machines and cannot identify passengers visually.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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I met a law officer who has federal clearance to carry his fire arm on flights. He went to security, presented his documentation and his weapon to the officials, who quickly approved him. Then, as he stepped away from the table, they stopped him... to make him take the nail clipper off his key chain. After all, he didn't have clearance for that. It's ridiculous. Wow.
What I do not understand is if you have a cigarette lighter before security, they will throw it away. Yet you get through security to the shops, and you can buy a cigarette lighter? Where does this make sense?
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