Traveling via the airlines these days has gotten muy sucky., Given the choice of a full body scanner (the backscatter machine) or a TSA groping, you might want to take the groping., David J. Brenner, a Columbia University radiation expert has the following view (VIA);
“If most air travelers went through these X-ray scanners, then it is indeed quite likely that there would be some number of cancers produced by the radiation. Skin cancers are a particular concern, because the low-energy X-rays used in these scanners deposit a significant fraction of their total dose in the skin. In general, children are more sensitive than adults to radiation, and that’s true for the endpoint of radiation-related skin cancer too.”