The Department of Homeland Security has named the first 11 U.S. airports to receive advanced imaging technology (AIT) units, or full body scanners.

"By accelerating the deployment of this technology, we are enhancing our capability to detect and disrupt threats of terrorism across the nation," said DHS Secretary Napolitano. "These 11 airports will be the first of many to receive this enhanced."

Based on security and operational needs, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will deploy AIT units to the following airports:

• Boston Logan International (BOS)
• Charlotte Douglas International (CLT)
• Chicago O'Hare International (ORD)
• Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG)
• Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FFL)
• Kansas City International (MCI)
• Los Angeles International (LAX)
• Mineta San Jos� International (SJC)
• Oakland International (OAK)
• Port Columbus International (CMH)
• San Diego International (SAN)

AIT units are already being installed at Boston Logan, and they will soon be operational at Chicago O'Hare. The rest will have the advanced security devices by Summer 2010.

Additional airports will be announced in the near future.

Advanced imaging technology is designed to bolster security by safely screening passengers for metallic and non-metallic threats--including weapons, explosives and other objects concealed under layers of clothing. The machines will include the latest security enhancements to detect new and evolving threats.

TSA says it ensures passenger privacy through the anonymity of AIT images--a privacy filter is applied to blur all images; images are permanently deleted immediately once viewed and are never stored, transmitted or printed; and the officer viewing the image is stationed in a remote location so as not to come into contact with passengers being screened.

Currently, 40 AIT units purchased previously are deployed at 19 airports nationwide. TSA expects to deploy a total of 450 AIT units by the end of 2010.

The body scanners could be in nearly half the nation's airports by late 2011, according to the Obama administration. $215 million has been earmarked to acquire 500 scanners in 2011, combined with the 450 to be bought this year.

The push for more scanners accelerated after the failed Christmas Day attempt to bomb an airliner near Detroit. Suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded Flight 253 in Amsterdam after walking through a metal detector with powder explosives hidden in his underwear.

Police allege he tried to trigger an explosion by igniting the powder, which caught fire but did not cause any serious damage before he was subdued by the crew and passengers.

The makeshift bomb ignited but did not explode. If the powerful mixture called PETN had gone off, it might have blown a hole in the side of the plane. Disaster was narrowly averted by a chance misfire.

Under the 2011 budget proposal, TSA would receive an additional $214.7 million for 500 whole body imaging devices at airport checkpoints to screen for non-metallic materials such as the PETN explosive carried by Abdulmutallab. The budget would fund TSA with a total of $734 million for the procurement and deployment of up to 1,000 whole body imagers.

Combined with the 500 deployments that are already planned through 2010, this appropriation will place this technology in 75 percent of the country's largest airports, said DHS officials

Privacy advocates label the scanners "a deeply invasive intrusion" that would inconvenience millions of innocent travelers with screening that takes longer than metal detectors.

And Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out against airport body scanners, insisting that "human dignity must be preserved."

Although the pontiff did not use the words "body scanner" during an audience with airport workers, it was clear what he meant as he said: "It is above all essential to protect and value the human person in their integrity."

Acknowledging that airports were in the forefront of the terrorist threat and suffering economically, he added: "Even in this situation, one must never forget that respecting the primacy of the human person and attention to his or her needs does not make the service less efficient nor penalize economic management."

Meanwhile, the medical community says airport full body scans expose passengers to little radiation.

The systems produce anatomically accurate images of the body and can detect objects and substances concealed by clothing.

To date, TSA has deployed two types of scanning systems:

• Millimeter wave technology uses low-level radio waves in the millimeter wave spectrum. Two rotating antennae cover the passenger from head to toe with low-level RF energy.
• Backscatter technology uses extremely weak X-rays delivering less than 10 microRem of radiation per scan –u the radiation equivalent one receives inside an aircraft flying for two minutes at 30,000 feet.

An airline passenger flying cross-country is exposed to more radiation from the flight than from screening by one of these devices.

The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP) says a traveler would need to experience 2,500 backscatter scans per year to reach what they classify as a Negligible Individual Dose. The American College of Radiology (ACR) agrees with this conclusion.

The ACR is not aware of any evidence that either of the scanning technologies that the TSA is considering would present significant biological effects for passengers screened.

And according to an editorial published in the British Medical Journal, consumers need not worry about the radiation dose from an airport scanner. The machines produce so little low intensity x-ray radiation that a person would have to undergo 1,000 to 2,000 screens to receive radiation similar to one chest x-ray.

The machines even appear safe for children and pregnant women, says the author of the piece, Dr. Mahadevappa Mahesh, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. However, operators of the equipment should receive safety training to make sure they avoid inadvertent exposure.

The privacy issue is a bigger concern, Mahesh said. Scanning has been called "a virtual strip search." But, he said, privacy concerns should be alleviated by having viewing stations at remote locations and ensuring the system cannot save images.

The machines may one day become mandatory, so it's time to start thinking about their repercussions, Mahesh said. "When considered in the context of a potential increase in security, the benefits outweigh the potential for harm," he wrote.

The aviation security gold rush will benefit the high-tech firms that already manufacture full body scanners, including L-3 Communications, Smiths Detection and Rapiscan Systems.

For example, L-3 Communications recently was awarded a $164.7 million contract by the TSA to supply the agency with millimeter wave (MMW) AIT systems. This contract vehicle makes L-3 eligible for future delivery orders for its ProVision MMW system.

TSA's award follows the recent designation of ProVision as a qualified checkpoint screening system The technology used in the ProVision system utilizes safe, harmless radio waves to detect threats which may be hidden under a passenger's clothing. Threat substances made from a wide variety of materials can be found with the ProVision, including both metallic and non-metallic threat items.

L-3's ProVision offers multiple levels of privacy protection that can be customized to support customer-specific operational procedures. Security analysts see a 3-D black and white silhouette that makes it virtually impossible to determine the identity of the scanned individual.

Also, images are viewed in remote locations separate from the checkpoint, so that analysts cannot see the passenger being scanned. Privacy is further ensured with options that allow for blurring of facial features, the firm emphasized.

More than 200 ProVision systems are already deployed worldwide to protect critical airports and other facilities, including federal and state courthouses, correctional institutions, embassies and border crossings.