Global General

Italy to test first body scanners in three airports

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-08 02:17

ROME: Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Transport Minister Altero Matteoli announced on Thursday that the first body scanners will be tested in at least three airports within two to three months maximum.

The new anti-terror measures will address heightened security concerns following the failed Christmas bomb attack on a US plane.

The decision was taken during an air security special meeting, attended as well by the chief of the country's Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) Vito Riggio. Scanners will be installed at Rome's Fiumicino airport, Milan's Malpensa hub and at Venice airport. Some 10 scanners are expected to be purchased by ENAC, which has already allocated 2 million euros (about 2.86 million US dollars) .

"The government believes air safety is a priority and the right to life comes before anything else. It is superior to that of privacy," said Maroni, who guaranteed, however, that security measures in Italian airports had already been tightened.

Maroni added that scanner will first be used in "sensitive flights" such as those to the United States, Britain and Israel, then if necessary implemented also for other destinations.

He announced that Italy will ask the European Union (EU) to formally adopt the body scanners in all member states' airports at the next meeting of the EU interior ministers scheduled for January 21 in Toledo.

"I will demand that all EU countries follow Italy's example, in case the EU Commission should fail in taking a binding decision," Maroni said.

In an interview on Tuesday to daily Il Sole 24 Ore, Maroni urged a "balanced" approach on privacy, with body images fuzzy enough not to cause embarrassment but "able to detect any anomaly" such as concealed objects or containers.

ENAC chief Vito Riggio highlighted that Italy will choose which scanner device model to purchase by the end of the month, following the results of special privacy and health tests to be carried out by a national committee.

The upcoming body scanner tests were backed as well on Tuesday by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who alleged privacy was a "fundamental right" for passengers but the right not to be blown up on an airplane was a more important one.

Frattini stressed that the scanners were "the safest tool" against the risk of a terrorist airline attack, noting that they " can prevent someone from swallowing explosives and becoming a human bomb, something which a metal detector cannot do."

Privacy is "an absolute and inalienable right," he said, "but if a person does not feel safe enough to fly because afraid the person nearby may be wearing an explosive device, then their freedom has been denied." ?

Frattini thus urged travelers to "sacrifice" their privacy and support the introduction of full body scanners at the country's international airports.