# New CT scanners used by TSA speed things up? I think not! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2025, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064 "2025-04-15T10:06:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/1 "2025-04-15T10:06:07Z")
From an MSN article I read today: “The introduction of CT scanners at airport checkpoints is revolutionizing security checks and reducing wait times.” I have found the opposite to be true. A TSA agent looking at the display screen of a CT scanner takes extra time to rotate the image several times along x and y axes and that adds time to the screening process. What’s been your experience? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/2 "2025-04-15T12:37:28Z")
They pull fewer bags aside to dig through by hand. Which speeds up the people who don’t know what they can’t bring. Or who have a rat’s nest of electronics in there. If you’re one of those people, the new way is lots faster. For you. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/3 "2025-04-15T14:15:46Z")
Based on Atlanta, it seems to take much longer. The carry-on screening is now 80% of the holdup, IME. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/4 "2025-04-15T14:48:45Z")
I try to get to the more modern one where you don’t have to take your electronics out and has the bigger bins. I assume this is what is being discussed? Anyway, I find it much more convenient and overall faster. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/5 "2025-04-15T17:14:37Z")
Waitaminute. The TSA is doing CAT scans on your carry-ons now? What’s the over-under on the first time someone gets their John Grisham novel confiscated because “it looks like it has cancer?” ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/6 "2025-04-15T17:26:01Z")
Also this: [Overuse of CT scans could cause 100,000 extra cancers in US](https://www.icr.ac.uk/about-us/icr-news/detail/overuse-of-ct-scans-could-cause-100-000-extra-cancers-in-us) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/7 "2025-04-15T17:32:15Z")
They are much faster in my experience. You don’t have to take your laptop and tablet out of your bag in those lines. Any additional time to look at the image is less than the time for you to go to the scanner and raise your arms. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/8 "2025-04-15T22:02:45Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > You don’t have to take your laptop and tablet out of your bag in those lines. That’s still a thing? Maybe it’s because I have PreCheck, but I don’t recall having to pull a laptop out of my bag for ages. But yeah, to OP’s point, based on travel in the last month, these new machines are much slower for me. I spend more time at the end of rollers waiting for my bag as the TSA agent spins the image around like he’s about to lose at Tetris. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/9 "2025-04-15T22:44:42Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > That’s still a thing? Maybe it’s because I have PreCheck, but I don’t recall having to pull a laptop out of my bag for ages. It absolutely is. I had to pull out my laptop traveling just three weeks ago as I got the old fashioned scan. I don’t have pre-check, so I’m sure that has everything to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/10 "2025-04-15T22:47:39Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Also this: [Overuse of CT scans could cause 100,000 extra cancers in US](https://www.icr.ac.uk/about-us/icr-news/detail/overuse-of-ct-scans-could-cause-100-000-extra-cancers-in-us) Are you thinking that TSA is using the CT scanners on the _passengers_? Otherwise, I can’t see how that link was relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/11 "2025-04-16T00:37:21Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > That’s still a thing? Maybe it’s because I have PreCheck, but I don’t recall having to pull a laptop out of my bag for ages. Depends on the line. My laptop bag has it in a compartment which folds down, so in the old days you didn’t have to take it out. TSA seems to have forgotten how to handle that these days. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/12 "2025-04-24T14:54:44Z")
Sorry for not returning to my thread for more than a month. Been busy … flying! Thanks for all the insights. It seems to still be an open question as to whether these new scanners speed things up or slow things down – or are a wash. I have learnt from the replies that have been posted that the questions hinges a lot on which airport is doing these screenings, the skill level of the operator and to a lesser extent the travel savviness of the passengers. IOW, YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/13 "2025-04-24T15:25:05Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > I spend more time at the end of rollers waiting for my bag as the TSA agent spins the image around like he’s about to lose at Tetris. This has been my experience in Atlanta, as a Pre-Check passenger. Going through the identity/boarding pass check is, not counting the initial line common line wait, at most 10% of the time, with the other 90% queuing up to grab a bin, then waiting at the other end for up to 10 minutes or so for my item to become available. A large gaggle of people waiting for their bag develops, with an inappropriately-small amount of space to stand and wait. From my perspective, the delay is definitely due to the screener spending a LOT of time analyzing each bag/item. Well, that’s what we want them to do, theoretically, but I think the new technology has given them more capabilities and resolution, so they are increasing their diligence. Which, again theoretically, is a good thing. The “fix” to this, maintaining the increased level of diligence, is to split the screening to more than one person; that’s just a guess from an untrained civilian. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/14 "2025-04-24T15:34:07Z")
I have the same wait after the metal detector in the Pre-Check line. What mystifies me is how it takes so long for the bags to get through what looks like a four-foot long screening machine. It almost seems to me that many bags couldn’t possibly be in that machine. Also, a nitpick. The OP refers to “CT scanners” used by the TSA. But Googling, the scanners in use appear to be [millimeter wave scanners](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millimeter_wave_scanner), which isn’t the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/15 "2025-05-07T18:56:07Z")
Those millimeter wave scanners are for the full body scans. Used in conjunction with or as an alternative to the metal detectors you walk through. The Wikipedia page you link to shows that clearly in a largeish photo near the top of the page. My OP was about the new **luggage** scanners … that have replaced the static X-Ray machines at some U.S. airports. They may still be X-Ray machines (I’m going to Google this right away), in which case I shouldn’t have called them CT scanners. In any case, these are the machines that are shaped like a scaled-down jet turbine engine – a tube with a bulge in the middle – that luggage gets pulled through by a conveyer belt – and they allow the operator viewing the images of your bag’s interior to rotate those images. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/16 "2025-05-08T00:43:36Z")
A CT scanner is an X-ray machine. It’s an X-ray that takes pictures from many different angles, to reconstruct a 3D view. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/17 "2025-05-08T00:55:21Z")
Sorry, you are correct that some of the baggage scanners _are_ CT scanners. ([Cite](https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2023/08/11/tsa-installs-new-security-technology-enhance-screening-capabilities). [Second cite](https://www.analogic.com/imaging-and-detection/checkpoint/).) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-ct-scanners-used-by-tsa-speed-things-up-i-think-not/1017064/18 "2025-05-08T04:42:10Z")
No experience with them. I could care less if they CT scan my luggage. If they are CT scanning _people_, that’s more radiation than I would want, and I would inquire about alternatives. I’m not sure if these are millimeter scanners?