Unions rep­re­sent­ing pilots and flight atten­dants are advis­ing their mem­bers to avoid the scan­ners because they inflict micro-dos­es of radi­a­tion. The dose is triv­ial­ly small, equiv­a­lent to the extra radi­a­tion expo­sure of fly­ing for 15 min­utes, but pilots may have to pass through the scan­ners twice every work­ing day. Radi­a­tion expo­sure is cumu­la­tive, and pilots are already exposed to large amounts of radi­a­tion as part of their work. The old scan­ners didn’t cause radi­a­tion exposure.

So far, the TSA has not grant­ed the same exemp­tion for flight atten­dants , despite protests by unions rep­re­sent­ing these work­ers. Flight atten­dants under­go the same fin­ger­print­ing and 10-year FBI back­ground check as pilots.

The TSA agreed on Fri­day to exempt pilots from inva­sive secu­ri­ty pat-downs. Last week, two major pilots’ unions demand­ed that their mem­bers be exempt­ed from new rules that require pas­sen­gers to sub­mit to an inva­sive body search if they refuse to pass through the new backscat­ter x‑ray machines.

Why should flight pro­fes­sion­als accept any addi­tion­al radi­a­tion from scan­ners that haven’t even been proven to be more effec­tive than the old tech­nol­o­gy? The TSA has yet to sup­ply a cost-ben­e­fit analy­sis for the scan­ners. Basi­cal­ly any ques­tion you might ask about why flight pro­fes­sion­als should put up with extra radi­a­tion or gen­i­tal touch­ing in the name of secu­ri­ty could also be asked of the gen­er­al pub­lic. Why is the gov­ern­ment forc­ing any­one to par­tic­i­pate in a giant, uncon­trolled, human experiment?

The TSA won’t even explain exact­ly what the new body search­es involve, much less why they are more effec­tive than the old pat downs. In late Octo­ber the TSA sud­den­ly intro­duced a new and inva­sive body search pro­to­col which involves the screen­er touch­ing the passenger’s clothed gen­i­tals. The pilots’ argued that these search­es were degrading.

“In my view, it is unac­cept­able to sub­mit to one in pub­lic while wear­ing the uni­form of a pro­fes­sion­al air­line pilot. I rec­om­mend that all pilots insist that such screen­ing is per­formed in an out-of-view area to pro­tect their pri­va­cy and dig­ni­ty,” wrote Allied Pilots Asso­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent David Bates in a mes­sage to mem­bers last week.

Most Amer­i­cans would find it degrad­ing to be groped in pub­lic, even in the name of secu­ri­ty. It is dou­bly degrad­ing for flight atten­dants who are them­selves trained secu­ri­ty pro­fes­sion­als. Flight atten­dants are fre­quent tar­gets of air rage and dis­re­spect from passengers.

Pub­lic pat-downs of flight atten­dants in uni­form will only fur­ther errode their hard-won sta­tus and author­i­ty. Degrad­ing and demor­al­iz­ing flight crews, the last line of defense against ter­ror­ist attack, is much more dan­ger­ous than skip­ping the pat downs.

The TSA’s deci­sion to exempt pilots but not flight atten­dants smacks of sex­ism. Over 95% of U.S. air­line pilots are men, 74% of flight atten­dants are women. Our soci­ety takes it for grant­ed that men have absolute bod­i­ly auton­o­my; where­as women are often expect­ed to sub­or­di­nate their bod­i­ly auton­o­my for some­one else’s idea of the greater good.