TSA To Retest Full Body Scanners For Radiation 199
cultiv8 writes with this excerpt from USA Today:
"The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected. The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records — the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes — appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.
Even so, the TSA has ordered the new tests out of 'an abundance of caution to reassure the public,' spokesman Nicholas Kimball says. The tests will be finished by the end of the month, and the results will be released 'as they are completed,' the agency said on its website."
The TSA's math is real wrong. (Score:5, Interesting)
Their example of "appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation." is a bad one.
The force of a bullet hitting a person is the same as that of the stock hitting the shoulder of the shooter. I'd rather be on the shooter's end.
Just because the amount of radiation is the same (or less) it doesn't mean its the same type. The scanners concentrate that radiation at one frequency, not over a broad spectrum. That frequency is absorbed not by the whole body, but by the first few millimeters of flest. That means that bit of flesh is getting thousands of times higher levels of exposure then that of the whole body mass exposure of back ground radiation.
Carry a radiation detector (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a keychain-sized radiation detector [nukalert.com] available for $160. It's a sealed unit, always on, and has a 10-year battery life. It sounds a burst of "chirps" if it detects radiation, with the number of chirps indicating logarithmically the level of hazard. One chirp, the level of radiation is safe for 40 days of exposure. 10 chirps, lethal within hours. Putting one in front of a dental X-ray machine produces about five chirps.
Carry one of those through a body scanner and see what happens.
An open challenge to John Pistole (Score:4, Interesting)
Mr. Pistole:
According to federal sources cited around the web, the amount of radiation is less than 1/1000 times [developerdig.com] the dosage from 3 minutes of air travel.
If these systems are as safe as you say, being scanned 100,000 times is about the amount of radiation one would get from a 4 hour flight.
It would go a long way towards convincing everyone if, as a publicity stunt, you allowed yourself to be scanned 100,000 times over a four hour period.
The equivalent dosage would be a little less than from a four hour flight, which is a risk that you regularly take as part of your official duties.
If you do this and emerge unharmed, I'm willing to concede the point. Until then, I claim that there is no evidence [okianwarrior.com] to warrant any claims as to the safety of airport scanners.
Rajstennaj Barrabas
Nashua, NH
Why is it (Score:4, Interesting)
If I get sick and need a scan, my government pleads poverty and leaves me on my own. If I try to fly somewhere, suddenly they're so overstuffed with money that they demand that I take a scan.
Best of both worlds, have certified radiologists operate the airport scanners and pat-downs. They can not only get you where you're going but give you a free scan and manual breast or testicular cancer screening.
Re:Carry a radiation detector (Score:5, Interesting)
They're illegal in New York City. The reason given is to prevent public panic.