- Harmless earrings can set off a metal detector.earring hair pulled back side face wedding bride image by Paul Retherford from Fotolia.com
Metal detectors are everywhere in our modern, security-conscious society. Airports, schools, businesses, state and federal buildings, even museums, screen visitors with metal detectors that scan their bodies and belongings for metals that may make up weapons. These systems clearly have advantages, as evident through their use, but they also have some disadvantages. - Mark Rowan and William Lahr of the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, say people can set metal detectors to varying levels of sensitivity. This is known as altering the detector's "discrimination."
However, if a metal detector is set to a discrimination level that is too high, it may detect potentially harmless items like belt buckles or even metal fillings in teeth. As a result, the detector may go off unnecessarily. The obvious solution is to choose a lower setting, but on some models even low settings are extremely sensitive. - As shown by Daniel Solomon of stuyspectator.com and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, it is unclear whether the use of metal detector systems violates constitutional rights such as freedom of expression (e.g., people can't wear clothing or accessories that set the system off), due process (forcing only select individuals to go through a detector may give a presumption of guilt) and personal security and privacy (people have a right not to have their bodies or belongings searched without cause). These rights are guaranteed by the First, Fourth, and 14th Amendments.
- According to officesecuritypro.com, metal detector systems may interfere with medical devices such as pacemakers. Rowan and Lahr says this is because metal detector systems use electric currents in the course of their operation.
- According to Rowan and Lahr, the electrical currents used in metal detectors create an electromagnetic field. Officesecuritypro. com say this can be a problem for any media that relies on magnetism. This includes pen drives and CDs, as the field can erase data on them.
- Security consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services says there is concern the presence of metal detectors may provide a false sense of security to users and to the general public. There is no guarantee that a metal detector (or any other security measure) will be effective 100 percent of the time, says the firm.
It says some groups may promote their metal detector systems as the way by which they have taken care of security issues, giving the impression that the detectors are more successful than they actually may be.
