X-ray backscatter security scanners

[Becky]

My mom had an interesting experience in an x-ray backscatter machine a couple weeks ago.

She has a lot of scar tissue UNDER the skin of her belly from decades of insulin injections. (no visible scars)

The backscatter radiation penetrated below the level of her skin and reflected off those subdermal scars, setting off an alert on my mom. She got a pat-down of her torso before they would let her through.

There's a bit more penetrating radiation in that procedure than we might think.

Wow.....I never considered the scar tissue thing (and I have plenty). I guess it's just as well that my insulin pump can't go through a backscatter machine. Either way, I'm getting a pat-down :/