Euro-MPs set conditions for airport body scanners

(BRUSSELS) - European airports can use body scanners to screen passengers but people must have the right to refuse to go through the controversial machines, a key European Parliament committee said Tuesday.

The use of X-ray scanners caused an uproar in the United States last year because they produce a graphic image of a person's body, giving rise to the name "naked scanner."

The EU parliament transport panel set strict conditions for the deployment of body scanners ahead of a proposal to be presented by the European Commission in the summer that would allow their use in the 27-nation European Union.

Armed with the right to veto the new rules, the lawmakers voted 37-2 in favour of allowing passengers to opt out of going through a scanner and instead submit themselves to a pat down.

Worried about the impact on health and privacy, the committee said X-ray scanners "using ionising radiation should be prohibited in the EU" and that no body images should be produced.

The committee added that images "must be destroyed right after the person has passed through the security control and may not be stored."

It also called for the ban on carrying liquids in airplane cabins to be lifted by 2013.

The United States stepped up the deployment of body scanners at airports after a Nigerian man was accused of trying to ignite explosives concealed in his underwear during a Christmas day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit in 2009.

Washington then urged the EU to follow suit but Europeans decided to first study their impact on health and privacy.

Some EU states, including Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Finland have tested body scanners.