TULSA -- Tulsa will be among 14 airports receiving millimeter-wave technology scanning machines before the end of the year, Transportation Security Administration officials said.
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.
