After months of considering how to spend the $1 billion set aside by the Obama Administration to add extra security in airports, a fleet of 150 full-body scanners are finally being installed. Approximately $25 million have gone toward the effort, and next week, the first will be installed in Boston Logan International Airport.
Three machines will be installed in the Massachusetts airport, and in the next two weeks, there will be another implemented in Chicago O’Hare International.
The rest of the devices should be completely set up by June, and are expected to improve airport security by showing objects on the body that other scanners haven’t been able to see. Some privacy advocates are against the machines, stating that they are invasive and unnecessary, but the United States and select countries in Europe have agreed to go through with the fleet of new security methods for the sake of safety.
The full-body scanners come in the wake of the NWA scare in December, when a Nigerian man brought undetected explosives on board, but did not harm anyone. Nigeria has also agreed to install the machines, as well as the Netherlands, which was the country the man flew through to get to Detroit on Christmas Day.
Currently, 40 scanners are in place in 19 airports across the country, according to USA Today.
