The controversial machines have been brought in at major airports across the globe, including the UK, leading to fears that the increased exposure to harmful radiation may cause cancer.
Now a US physics professor has added to the debate by claiming that the scanners are redundant because you are just as likely to contract cancer from the radiation as you are to die in a terrorist bomb on your flight.
Peter Rez, from Arizona State University, said the probability of dying from radiation from a body scanner and that of being killed in a terror attack are both about one in 30 million.
He said: 'The thing that worries me the most, is not what happens if the machine works as advertised, but what happens if it doesn't.
A potential malfunction could increase the radiation dose, he said.
