Posted on 11/12/2010 6:25:19 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Some US scientists warned the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners now being used to screen passengers and airline crews at airports around the country may be unsafe.
"They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays," Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine, told AFP.
"No exposure to X-ray is considered beneficial. We know X-rays are hazardous but we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly that they will risk their lives in this manner," he said.
The possible health dangers posed by the scanners add to passengers' and airline crews' concerns about the devices, which have been dubbed "naked" scanners because of the graphic image they give of a person's body, genitalia and all.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began rolling out full-body scanners at US airports in 2007, but stepped up deployment of the devices this year when stimulus funding made it possible to buy another 450 of the advanced imaging technology scanners.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I think the people commenting read the article that is the subject of the thread. The second, third and fourth paragraphs of the article are very much at odds with what you have posted.
And the full article at the link mentions even more possible hazards.
Well I certainly read the article, and don’t consider it very useful. The Agencie France Presse (AFP) doesn’t have a very good reputation for good reason. In this case, they are quoting folks with an axe to grind who are making claims, not stating fact. Stirring the pot. Find some other sources, pro and con and make up your own mind, this article isn’t worth the bandwidth that its occupying.
I am well aware of the Pilot’s Union objections and I don’t think that they have produced any valid scientific evidence to back them up. If any medical concern were to be confirmed, I would think that it would point to the backscatter X-Ray technology. I think that its inferior to the millimeter wave scanner for other reasons as well, so I would dump backscatter if it were up to me.
Meanwhile, I’ll be happy to go through the scanner, thank you very much.
Go through it one or two hundred times per year for a few years, then get back to us. And many frequent flyers will do just that, and then some.
Not sure how you know those quoted have an ax to grind, but those pushing these machines have big ticket items to sell, and those buying them have government stimulus money to spend. This is just the sort of scenario that can result in unforeseen outcomes, especially in cases where many will be subjected to these scans hundreds of times over the years.
Not very healthy for anyone who is not an exhibitionist or who is a child, either.
People should start filing charges and lawsuits over this. The TSA is groping adults and molesting children. Arrests need to be made..
People should start filing charges and lawsuits over this. The TSA is groping adults and molesting children. Arrests need to be made..
As soon as we get control of the Senate, I say time to radically resign TSA procedures.
Drop the political theator and focus on what actaully will protect Americans.
Skip the standing-in-line-taking-off-shoes ritual designed to placate political correctness gods.
Copy what Israel does.
Screen passengers who statistically match warning signs for enhanced questioning.
Deploy more intelligence efforts to catch terror plots in the planning stages.
Benefits: save administrative costs, boost tourism, speed commerce, reduce foot order, catch more terrorists, and by moving the majority of TSA agents back into the fast food industry, we reduce the cost of tacos, pizza and Burgers for everyone.
You are apparently missing the issue. It's not about "Muslim sensibilities". It's about an over-intrusive government. TSA seems to think they can impose any type of restrictionor control measure, coerced by intimidation, that comes to mind. They justify this by claiming, "You don't have a right to fly". I, for one, am sick of a bunch of bureaucratic busybodies trying to determine which "rights" I am allowed to enjoy.
No, I'm not missing that issue, its just another issue. Magnetometers are pretty useless, they just provide an illusion of security as has been demonstrated by several failed bombing attempts that passed the magnetometer.
So, the question is do we tolerate these scanners, or do we just revert to random searches based on profiling? I'm all in favor of strip searching everyone who fits the profile of every hijacker/bomber of the last forty years.
Unfortunately, the politicians don't think that's a good idea and the enemy would certainly select bombers who don't fit the profile. Or, we could just forget all of it until the next airplane blows up. Then what?
One problem. These scanners don’t use x-rays.
They use FAR-INFRARED radiation.
Funny you should mention “vaginal bomber.” Actually, funny is not the proper word.
About four years ago, a number of British Airways flights from London to Los Angeles were cancelled during the last days of December, right around New Years Eve.
Eventually, it was reported that “intelligence sources” claimed that one or more female terrorists were planning to place explosives in their vaginas and their plan was to crash the jetliner onto the Las Vegas Strip!
How the terrorists planned to seize control of the plane and fly in into Las Vegas Boulevard, I have no idea. A bizarre plot, if it was real.
Whatever happened to those “puffer” machines? They were supposed to detect traces of explosives on passengers and their clothing, and were not intrusive.
They are still out there, whenever I go through Reagan, I see one in the corner at Terminal A. Someone told me that they were maintenance nightmares. They won’t detect PETN, however.
provide an illusion of security
—
in the end, that’s all it is..
With attitudes like that, it's no wonder I feel safer on the streets of Baghdad or Ramadi than when I travel through US airports.
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