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The ‘Embarrassing’ Reason Travelers Keep Setting Off TSA Alarms

Apparently those airport scanners are not built to handle normal bodily functions.

If you’ve ever been pinged by a TSA scanner for no good reason, it’s probably because you weren’t feeling your freshest when going through security. A woman has revealed that her first flight in 15 years saw her crotch area set off two different alarms. “I’m a midsized adult woman (169 lbs, 5′8″) and was wearing bike shorts and normal underwear," she posted to Reddit. “I don’t have any medical devices or piercings... It was the exact same spot on my groin both times.” Similarly delayed travelers shared their own experiences on the thread, with one claiming a TSA agent had referred to them as having “swamp crotch.” Airline security uses what are known as millimeter wave scanners, which bounce off of human skin, revealing an image of the person’s body. However, the waves can be blocked by water, and sweat, creating a false alarm. “Perspiration is probably the weirdest thing that can set off the scanners,” security researcher Shawna Malvini Redden told Reader’s Digest. She added that the machines used by the TSA are so bad at ignoring human sweat that they have been abandoned by countries like France and Germany. America, however, still hangs onto them, meaning the next time you head to the airport, make sure you’ve hit the deodorant.