Airport ditches controversial bodyscanners

A total of 13 backscatter X-ray machines are being ditched because they have not been given EU approval, even though they are in common use in the United States.

The devices, which use low dose X-rays to produce an image of the body, have come under fire on both privacy and health grounds, amid suggestions they could pose a potential cancer risk.

However despite an expert committee concluding in March that the devices did not pose a health risk, Brussels has refused to sanction their use.

As a result they will be replaced by millimetre-wave devices, such as those used at Heathrow, which have been given EU approval.

These machines enable security staff to detect hidden objects without also requiring them to inspect a ghostly X-ray image of the body.