Is Walking Through Metal Detectors Safe For Pregnant Women?

Posted on Wed, 11 Oct 2017

Question: Hi,
Are the metal detectors safe to walk through while pregnant.. nobody adviced me not to go through them at my gynaecologist's clinic.. i must have visited a nearby mall atleast 6 times while i was pregnant and possibly would have crossed the detector 10 times. When I was visibly pregnant the guard at the entrance told me to skip it and thats wen it striked me.. my baby is a week shy of 12 months and is healthy. Im just being paranoid that by passing metal detectors i have put her at cancer risk and feeling very guilty for being ignorant.

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Completely safe. No need to worry.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

I have gone carefully through your query and understand your concerns. Let me assure you that metal detectors are completely safe to pass through during pregnancy. They are based on pulse induction (PI). Typical PI systems use a coil of wire on one side of the arch as the transmitter and receiver. This technology sends powerful, short bursts (pulses) of current through the coil of wire. Each pulse generates a brief magnetic field. Needless to say, it does not increase risk of cancer or does not pose any threat to the baby.

Let me know if I could help further.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T