Security industry booms amid rush for body scanners

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Airport security buildups geared toward installing more body scanners at departure points have heartened investors who poured money into safety and security industries with the clear aim of profiting from current trends.

Amid low interest rates, investors moved large sums into security industries last year after expert forecasts that demand for equipment, expertise and services related to safety and security could only grow because of continuing threat perceptions worldwide.

Industry researcher Strategic Insight estimates that a record $400 billion moved into security industry bond funds during 2009, MarketWatch.com said.

The London Guardian newspaper said security industries hoped to profit from the current rush to install body scanners at airports and other checkpoints, including buildings, but there was little guarantee the new equipment would eliminate the threat.

The scanner manufacturers claim they would detect materials of the sort Nigerian Abdulmutallab allegedly took onto his Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, but experts caution that it would depend on a series of factors, not least the vigilance of the scanner operator, The Guardian said.

The body scanners are set to cause further delays in flight operations wherever they are installed, but they can still fail if the operator is not vigilant enough.

"It's one of the big difficulties with airport security," The Guardian quoted Flight International Editor Kieran Daly as saying. "You're asking people to do a job which is not only very important and carries a very high risk if there is a failure, but is also exceptionally tedious."

Body scanners can handle two to three people a minute, a little faster than a conventional frisk, the newspaper said. Once authorities decide to go ahead with deployment of the scanners, shareholders in the industry can look forward to significant returns on their investment because of the huge outlay of capital required by governments and corporations.

A single body scanner can cost up to $160,000, excluding training and maintenance, compared with $5,000 to 8,000 for a single industry-standard metal detector.

Still, chances of error can never be eliminated, industry analysts said.

Philip Baum, an aviation security expert, told The Guardian, "There is no one answer. The first step of the process should always be the proper use of the human brain: people making an intelligent decision as to which security lane a passenger goes down."

Controversy also surrounds the kind of scanners being deployed. U.S. manufacturer Brijot told United Press International their machine protects passenger privacy and is better at detecting suspect materials in intimate body areas than most of the scanners currently deployed at airports.

Although Brijot machines are used by the U.S. military and in private palaces in the Middle East, mainly because of their privacy aspect, the manufacturer said it hopes its product will be brought into wider use.

In the meantime, incidents such as the Christmas Day bombing attempt have given new impetus to investors flocking into research and development of more effective anti-terrorist equipment with the hope of lucrative returns.