Is it safe to walk through airport screening machines when pregnant?
In airports, passengers walk through metal detectors, which use a low-frequency electromagnetic field to look for metal objects. Anything that generates or uses electricity, such as power lines and household appliances, produces electromagnetic fields. At the low levels of a metal detector, this exposure is considered safe for everyone, including pregnant women. (The same holds true for the wands that are sometimes passed over individual passengers.) Many people mistakenly think these screening machines take X-rays — they don’t. Airport X-ray machines, which emit the same kind of radiation you’d get from a dental X-ray, are used only on luggage.
