The 27-member countries of the European Union will start using millimeter-wave scanners after the EU announced the ban on the use of X-ray body scanners in all European airports due concerns on its effect to a person's health.

The EU announced the ban on the use of the machine "in order not to risk jeopardizing citizen's health and safety" of its citizens. Studies have shown that X-ray scanners can slightly increase a person's risk of getting cancer as it use low-level radiation.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration, on the other hand, said it the scanners meet its safety standards. U.S. transportation officials stressed the need to use the best available security technology in U.S. airports noting that its advanced imaging technology has detected dangerous and illegal items on passengers in U.S. airports.

ProPublica reported that about 250 X-ray scanners are currently being used in American airports, along with 264 millimeter-wave scanners. The millimeter-wave scanners, which are used more often than X-ray scanners in U.S. airports, use safe, "nonionizing" radiation - a low-energy kind that does not cause genetic mutations - rather than DNA-damaging X-ray radiation.

According to a LiveScience report, U.S. transportation officials said it is important to have both technologies in order to create competition, which keeps prices down and will ultimately lead to even better imaging technology. With regards to concerns that X-ray screening can cause cancer, the TSA said the amount of ionizing radiation used in X-ray scanners is extremely low.

Nonetheless, the TSA said it plans to install an X-ray or millimeter-wave scanner at nearly every airport security checkpoint in the country in the next three years.