The Issues that Result from Using a Metal Detector
Though there are many reasons why you want to detect where a metal is hidden. The reason for inventing a metal detector in the first place is an interesting one.
6 months and 15 days after he was inaugurated the 20th US. President, James Abram Garfield, was assassinated. He died from a gunshot to his chest on September 19, 1881. As he lay dying, a notable scientist of Scottish origin, Alexander Graham Bell, hurriedly invented a metal detector which he called an induction balance. His purpose of inventing it was to find the bullet that pierced the dying LLE. President. The attempt failed, but the idea of using a metal detecting device to locate hidden objects made of metal was born.
SECURITY:
The major plus you get by using a metal detecting device is on security. A lot of people feel safer when they know that everyone in a given environment does not have harmful metal objects on them. Due to the age we live in, this is a major plus.
Take the instance of a bank. Customers in a banking hall will feel safer knowing they will not be attacked with a knife or other harmful objects while they go about their banking transactions This is because everyone in the banking hall must have passed through the metal detecting door. The same goes for the faithful who attend a church service, for example. They feel secure as they worship God in the knowledge that a handheld metal detector was used in scanning everyone present in the church building.
This security factor has deterred a lot of criminal activities from taking place. As positive as this sounds, there are issues which have arisen with the use of these metal detecting devices, whether hand-held or walk-through. They include:
1. Privacy:
This is an important aspect that borders on our inalienable rights as citizens of this great country. There are people who detest the idea of walking through a metal detecting door. As honest citizens of the country, it makes them feel like a common criminal when they are made to do this. Though they might still feel uncomfortable; they may prefer being scanned from head to toe with a hand-held metal detector.
The argument may be that for the greater good, we may just have to lose some of our inalienable rights to privacy. It, however, does not remove the fact that a good number of people will feel like common criminals whenever they are made to be scanned by a metal detecting device.
2. FALSE ALARMS:
This is not to say that metal detectors do not perform their functions properly. For the sake of security, people are made to pass through metal detector doors at places like an airport, for instance. The aim is to detect items like a bomb, or a knife probably, on a person with a criminal intent. However, not being able to differentiate one from the other, the alarm will ring when all that is on a person's body may be just a bunch of keys, jewelry, or a laptop for instance.
This even lowers the guard of the security personnel since they know that not all alarms are an indication that a criminal is a weapon made of metal. Aside from the security personnel lowering their guard, the person involved feels embarrassed as people's attention are turned on him or her.
3. METAL IMPLANT
There are people who for some medical reasons like a serious heart failure that have metals, called defibrillators, surgically implanted in their bodies. This device has been used to save a lot of lives. Imagine the inconvenience that these people suffer every time they have to pass through a metal detector door.
Agreed that the security personnel may be able to see it on the computer, there are situations where a computer is not available. if a handheld metal detector is used, the person with a surgically installed metal in the body, will have a hard time explaining why the alarm of the metal detecting device went off. This is another disadvantage of using a metal detecting device.
4. PHYSICAL HARM
When metal detecting devices are used on people who have metals implanted in them surgically, it tends to cause them some form of physical harm. This is as a result of how metal detectors work. Metal detecting devices work by creating a strong field of electromagnetism.This interference which is electronic in nature causes a lot of discomfort to pacemakers for instance.
5. METAL DETECTION LEVEL
The level at which a metal detector door works can be set. That is why you may be able to pass through a metal detecting door with a bunch of keys while another metal detecting door will raise an alarm as you pass through it. This is the case most times with metal detecting doors installed in banks.
It is a sort of embarrassment for a person who passed through a bank detecting door in Bank Z to be flagged when the same person wants to enter Bank Y. These different levels of metal detection make it confusing to people. Even if a metal detector must be used, at least let the level of detection be the same, so that users can know what to expect when they want to make use of it.
CONCLUSION
Since the invention of the metal detector, humans have taken a great stride in improving the standard of living. Security has gotten better as metal detecting doors have prevented some criminal minded people from causing troubles. Apart from security, they are used to detect metals that are hidden under the ground. This is why it is good for prospecting for minerals and other industrial applications.
There are issues however that come with it. it encroaches on the privacy of people. For people with medical issues that are treated or corrected by surgically implanting metals in them, they constantly face the embarrassment of alarms ringing whenever they pass through a metal detector door. There is also the case of false alarms being raised when a bunch of keys, jewelry, mobile phones, and some other harmless metals are detected.
