by Terrence Aym

Created on: January 28, 2011

The controversial U.S. scanners used in some American airports have been blamed for a woman's death.

The TSA back scanners caused an uproar in the United States when they were first rolled out in selected air terminals across the U.S. during late 2010. Some travelers risked possible arrest rather than be forced to go through them; airline crews demanded an exemption from them and got it.

The next controversy erupted when images of scanned passengers were proven to be more revealing of the human body than the TSA had admitted. A female, whose nude body image was allegedly posted all over the Internet by a TSA employee threatened to sue the security agency.

Privacy rights activists called for boycotts of the nation's largest airports. A media firestorm ensued.

All of that was immediately followed by serious questions from health professionals across the nation and atomic scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico concerning the long term health risks the scanners terahertz waves generated. scientific studies emerged revealing the possibility that exposure to the radiation might damage DNA. Medical doctors warned of possible heightened cancer risks.

The latest incident comes from Egypt where a 57-year old Palestinian woman died over the weekend after passing through one of the scanners. The woman had an implanted pacemaker, a device that several American doctors warned should not be permitted near the terahertz waves.

Nevertheless, the security personnel at the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt instructed the woman, Fatima Mahmoud Abu Obeid, to pass through the scanner before crossing the border into Egypt with her husband. Just 30 minutes after passing through the machine Abu Obeid collapsed.

She was rushed by ambulance to a Rafah hospital in Egypt where physicians pronounced her dead.

Egyptian military spokesmen categorically deny any link between her death and the scanner. They assert the machine was thoroughly tested and claim it cannot harm people passing through it. Back scanners have also been installed at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport.

Palestinian sources, however, blame her sudden death squarely on the border's high-tech scanning machine. They believe the scanner's radiation interfered with her battery-operated pacemaker.  Some medical experts tended to agree.

The scanner is described as a "U.S.-made advanced portal using [terahertz] wave technology to screen passengers for weapons and explosives."

The incident is currently under investigation. Operators of the scanner claim that Abu Obeid failed to inform them that she was fitted with a pacemaker.

Officials also dismissed allegations that the strength of the terahertz waves differed depending on the individual being sent through the device. They stressed that the same level is used on every person.

Palestinians were already suspicious of the scanner. A week earlier Palestinian officials closed the Rafah crossing in protest of the machine's installation. They were concerned about the dangerous radiation it emits.

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