No Proof TSA Scanners Are Safe

[DainBramaged]

If you believe the government, you have little to worry about from the radiation beam flitting over the front and back of your body in airport watchdogs' search for explosives and other hidden implements of terror this holiday season.

The Transportation Security Administration says that when working properly, the backscatter Advance Imaging Technology X-ray scanners emit an infinitesimal, virtually harmless amount of radiation.

The problem is that the TSA offers no proof that anyone is checking to see if the machines are "working properly."

The TSA ticks off a litany of groups that it says are involved with determining and ensuring the safety of the controversial devices, including:

•The Food and Drug Administration
•The U.S. Army Public Health Command
•Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
•The Health Physics Society

However, AOL News has found that those organizations say they have no responsibility for the continuing safety of the alternative to TSA's grope.

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/20/aol-investigation-no-proof-tsa-scanners-are-safe/?icid=maing%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C32490

[LisaL]

1. I, for one, believe there is nothing to worry about,

considering TSA says they will check these machines are working properly at least ONCE A YEAR. Nothing to worry about, nothing at all.
:sarcasm:

[BlueIris]

2. It is frightening how little data we have to substantiate their "safety." nt

[LisaL]

5. At least some in congress are concerned about this.

"In addition, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asked the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general to investigate the effectiveness of the TSA's X-ray inspection program for full-body scanners. "I am concerned that TSA's past history in this area … could lead to unintentional exposures to radiation of both TSA employees and members of the public," Markey wrote in a letter Monday to the inspector general."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-12-06-tsa-xray-inspection-records_N.htm?csp=34news

[Love Bug]

3. I'd rather get groped than risk exposure in these machines

The same government that decided the air around Ground Zero was safe after 9/11 is now saying the TSA scanners are safe? "Just trust us" from them doesn't cut any slack with me.

[DainBramaged]

4. That same government that refuses to pay for the care of the First Responders to 9/11

Our society has become corrupt.


I still see Christie Witless standing on the pile proclaiming the area was safe, while thousands have died unnecessarily from all types of diseases way too young from the toxic cloud that settled over the site.

[felix_numinous]

6. When their public safety record improves

then I will begin to trust them again. They have a lot of work to do.

[EnviroBat]

7. How long are we going to sit here and allow our government to kill us?

I feel about ready to snap sometimes.

[flamingdem]

8. Anyone who goes through these machines is a fool

but many want to buy into the "oh it's just like being out in the sun all day!".

Luckily scientists at UC San Francisco and Colombia University are speaking out.

[snot]

9. The whole thing is outrageous:

Gross, mass-scale violation of the Fourth Amendment.

By comparison, I don't even care about the health hazards or the alternative groping -- it's the rape of my fundamental rights.

And I have still to hear even the straw of a justification for fining people who refuse either $10,000.

If just ten percent of people either boycotted flying or refused to be scanned or groped, this whole thing would be over.

Like I said, it's outrageous; and depressing evidence of what sheep we've become.

[DemReadingDU]

10. +++