When I flew through Schipol this summer I was indeed on a flight where the scanners were "required".
However, when it was my turn I stopped up and told the guy at the scanner that I wanted to opt-out.
At first he just looked puzzled and said he did not understand what I was saying. After first repeating, and then rephrasing "I do not want to go through those scanners", he told me to talk to his supervisor.
I then approached the metal detector (which was blocked by a mobile barrier) squeezed in between the two huge scanners. The guy on the other side then tried to wave me through the scanners again at which I simply pointed to the metal detector.
After then shouting to him that I wanted to go through there he finally approached me.
He removed the barrier and told me to then take off my shoes before going through (notably not a requirement in the scanners).
This is where it a bothersome experience turned into a really lousy experience.
Just as I passed through the detector when I was passing in between the two active scanners (imagine the radiation there) he came up to me face-to-face, at a really uncomfortably close distance.
He asked me angrily why I didn't want to go through the scanners. Was it privacy issues? Because those were accounted for. So what could I possibly be thinking? It really felt like an interrogation.
I told him I was concerned with the health risks associated with there scanners, and that a group of American academics had signed a letter stating that these scanners weren't actually proven safe.
This is then where it got really bizarre, because at this he said plain out "Oh yeah? What do they know about these machines? What about trusting European scientists instead??". *
At this point I was simply shocked and horrified. I believe I managed to ask him if he actually knew where the machines where from, before he finally just shrugged at me and let me escape from the scanners.
I was later told by another, much nicer guard at another security check (we all actually had to go through two checks within the span of an hour), that I sure had the option to opt-out, but only until the end of this year at which point they would become mandatory for everyone.
Notably, at no point in this security circus was I or any of the other passengers told that we even had the option of opt'ing-out.
And as soon as I was through the metal detector, they closed it up again, so no other passengers might get the idea that they too had the right not to be scanned.
* I do not believe these scanners have been tested for real in Europe or "by European scientists", before perhaps now.
This is actually not true.
When I flew through Schipol this summer I was indeed on a flight where the scanners were "required".
However, when it was my turn I stopped up and told the guy at the scanner that I wanted to opt-out.
At first he just looked puzzled and said he did not understand what I was saying. After first repeating, and then rephrasing "I do not want to go through those scanners", he told me to talk to his supervisor.
I then approached the metal detector (which was blocked by a mobile barrier) squeezed in between the two huge scanners. The guy on the other side then tried to wave me through the scanners again at which I simply pointed to the metal detector.
After then shouting to him that I wanted to go through there he finally approached me. He removed the barrier and told me to then take off my shoes before going through (notably not a requirement in the scanners).
This is where it a bothersome experience turned into a really lousy experience. Just as I passed through the detector when I was passing in between the two active scanners (imagine the radiation there) he came up to me face-to-face, at a really uncomfortably close distance.
He asked me angrily why I didn't want to go through the scanners. Was it privacy issues? Because those were accounted for. So what could I possibly be thinking? It really felt like an interrogation.
I told him I was concerned with the health risks associated with there scanners, and that a group of American academics had signed a letter stating that these scanners weren't actually proven safe.
This is then where it got really bizarre, because at this he said plain out "Oh yeah? What do they know about these machines? What about trusting European scientists instead??". *
At this point I was simply shocked and horrified. I believe I managed to ask him if he actually knew where the machines where from, before he finally just shrugged at me and let me escape from the scanners.
I was later told by another, much nicer guard at another security check (we all actually had to go through two checks within the span of an hour), that I sure had the option to opt-out, but only until the end of this year at which point they would become mandatory for everyone.
Notably, at no point in this security circus was I or any of the other passengers told that we even had the option of opt'ing-out. And as soon as I was through the metal detector, they closed it up again, so no other passengers might get the idea that they too had the right not to be scanned.
* I do not believe these scanners have been tested for real in Europe or "by European scientists", before perhaps now.