Thursday, November 22, 2012

TSA scanners dangerous


Subject: TSA scanners dangerous

5 Reasons I'm Opting Out Of The TSA's Scanners (And You Should Too)
Posted: 11/16/2012 7:00 am



Next week is one of the busiest of the year for air travel. And the last thing you probably want to see at the airport when you fly home for Thanksgiving is a long line -- especially one that's preventable.
But this year is different.
This Thanksgiving, I'm telling the TSA agents who screen me that I won't walk through their full-body scanners.
And I'm not alone. A group of activists who are concerned about the so-called "advanced" imaging technology are also urging air travelers to just say "no" next week.
Opting out means agents will either give you an "enhanced" pat-down or wave you through the screening area (and when there's a long line, it's a safe bet it'll be the latter). But the peaceful protest will also slow screenings to the point where the agency will have to reconsider the way it checks air travelers, as it did during a successful opt-out action two years ago.
A sustained protest could kill the scanners.
If you're one of the millions of Americans who fly, and don't think there's anything wrong with getting a full-body scan, let me offer a few reasons you should reconsider.
1. They're not adequately tested and could be dangerous. Unfortunately, the scanners you'll be asked to walk through haven't been properly tested. The latest independent evaluations are actually based on data provided by the TSA. The government wants us to trust it, but it won't give us a reason. That's unacceptable.
2. They're easily foiled. It's not difficult to sneak a weapon through a full-body scanner,  according to several reports. The career criminals who might want to do us harm have figured out how to get around the scanners already.
3. They're too expensive. At a quarter of a million bucks a pop, the scanners are a huge waste of taxpayer money. To use one, or to allow one to be used on you, is is an endorsement of an iffy technology. It also lines the pockets of undeserving security contractors, say critics.
4. They probably violate your constitutional rights. Beyond the fact that they are nothing more than an overpriced visual deterrent to amateur terrorists, the TSA's scanners are constitutionally problematic. The Fourth Amendment's provisions against unreasonable searches are directly at odds with the way these scanners are deployed and used.
5. They haven't caught a single terrorist. Sure, they've netted plenty of contraband, which the TSA likes to show off weekly on its blog. But so far, not a single airborne jihadist has been caught with the scanners. Not a one.
National Opt-Out Week is a good start, and it comes on the heels of the TSA's humiliating withdrawal of its most controversial full-body scanners from major airports: the risky "backscatter" X-ray machines.
But in order to end the warrantless scans for good, we need to stand up at the same time and say "no" even after Opt-Out Week ends.
We need to do it until the TSA changes the way it screens us.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

THE BIGGEST REASON IS THEY ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH IN THE FUTURE. HAD A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE IN L.A. TELL ME TO NEVER EVER GET IN FRONT OF ONE. MY FRIEND IS A RETIRED RADIOLOGIST.... THE GOOD THING IS THAT AT THE RATE TSA AGENTS ARE NOW GETTING CANCER THE AGENCY WILL BE GONE SOON....THESE X-RAYS DESTROYS YOUR CHROSOMES...

Damage in the sense of free radicals or chromosome breaks can be detected within seconds.

Damage as in a clinically significant risk of developing cancer could happen in a year.

Sunday, June 3, 2012Airport X-ray Machines Are Still A Health Hazard!
X-ray airport scanners.
You know those "backscatter" full-body X-ray machines at airport security gates? Europe banned them several months ago because of health concerns, but the machines are still in use in some airports in the States. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says the amount of radiation emitted by each scan is minuscule, but independent research suggests the dose to some parts of the body is at least 45 times higher than the TSA claims and may even increase cancer risk, particularly for the elderly and women predisposed to breast cancer. Since you're already going to be exposed to radiation by flying, avoid the extra rays and ask for a pat-down, says John Sedat, Ph.D., a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco.
BOMBS SNIFFING DOGS ARE FAR SAFER AND 100% ACCURATE....

Anonymous said...

X-Ray Nation | Full Body Scanners Unzipping the Human DNA

http://www.menwithfoilhats.com/2010/11/x-ray-nation-full-body-scanners-unzipping-the-human-dna/

Technology Review

A new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather.

The evidence that terahertz radiation damages biological systems is mixed. “Some studies reported significant genetic damage while others, although similar, showed none,” say Boian Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a few buddies. Now these guys think they know why.

Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they’ve found is remarkable. They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. That’s a jaw dropping conclusion.

And it also explains why the evidence has been so hard to garner. Ordinary resonant effects are not powerful enough to do do this kind of damage but nonlinear resonances can. These nonlinear instabilities are much less likely to form which explains why the character of THz genotoxic effects are probabilistic rather than deterministic, say the team.

This should set the cat among the pigeons. Of course, terahertz waves are a natural part of environment, just like visible and infrared light. But a new generation of cameras are set to appear that not only record terahertz waves but also bombard us with them. And if our exposure is set to increase, the question that urgently needs answering is what level of terahertz exposure is safe.