Airport Full Body Pat Downs and X Ray Scanners:
invading your privacy and increasing your cancer risk?
Americans are feeling less secure as airport security measures tighten. And people resent that the tightening includes hands on their waists, thighs, and other sensitive areas of their physique. Invading your privacy, and now even your private parts, to supposedly preserve your life and freedom.
Probable cause. Unreasonable search.
Don't let the fuzz of authoritarianism befuddle you to the point that you forget these vital concepts.
TSA airport scanners and pat downs are highly visible camouflage to cover the fact that overall security is generally lousy, using poorly trained staff and malfunctioning carcinogenic machines.
Scanners, that often don't work right, and pat downs, that often don't seem right, are something authorities can point to and say, "See? We're doing something. You're being protected, whether you like it or not."
Remember: TSA is beyond inept.
TSA was unable to keep their own procedures manual secure. It was spread all over the internet. It wasn't a hacker. TSA themselves posted the entire TSA security manual online as part of a contract bidding process.
[QUOTE]
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration inadvertently revealed closely guarded secrets regarding airport passenger screening practices when it posted online this spring a document as part of a contract solicitation, the agency confirmed Tuesday.
The 93-page TSA operating manual details procedures for screening passengers and checked baggage, and it reveals technical settings used by X-ray machines and explosives detectors.
It also includes pictures of identification cards used by members of Congress, CIA employees and federal air marshals, pointing out what elements determine their validity, and it identifies 12 countries whose passport-holders are automatically subject to added scrutiny.
TSA officials said the manual was posted online in a redacted form on a federal procurement Web site, but the digital redactions were inadequate. They allowed computer users to highlight and copy blacked-out passages and paste them into a new document or an e-mail.
Current and former U.S. security officials called the breach troubling, saying that it exposed TSA practices that were implemented after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and expanded after the August 2006 disruption of a plot to down transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives.
Stewart Baker, a former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said the manual will become a textbook for those seeking to penetrate aviation security and that its loss was serious.
The TSA's congressional overseers were scathing in their criticism. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the senior Republican on the Senate homeland security committee, called the document's release "shocking and reckless."
[END QUOTE]
The wife of a TSA employee said, "If you're opposed to enhanced patdowns, then you don't want to be safe when you fly."
A victim of TSA structured massage got uppity, like the "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" guy, and warned, "...if you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested."
Mature, rational adults are very concerned about the groping and probing, that's being done by TSA, without probable cause or profile indicators.
Rhetoric is heating up as ordinary citizens, along with civil rights activists, protest and rebel against what they feel is an invasion of privacy.
Daily Kos is so outraged, they're calling for this: "Junk the TSA". Read their article for background about how airlines and airports have been notoriously lax in security for decades, in spite of awareness of terrorist threats, lunatic acts, smuggling, and hijacking.
Rather than learn from El Al the Israeli airline that has fairly successfully thwarted terrorist activities for decades, our enlightened leaders have their own plan. El Al is considered the safest airline in the world. They use Intelligence, not Body Searches. They use Passenger Interviews by Trained Staff, not Enhanced Pat Downs and Full Body X Ray Scans.
But you see, TSA already invested a lot of taxpayer dollars in a bunch of over-priced, glitchy, and potentially dangerous full-body X ray scanners. Once again, bureaucrats are not quite understanding why The People are opposed to their tactics and methods, along with their pompously official ways of explaining them.
But you see, TSA already invested a lot of taxpayer dollars in a bunch of over-priced, glitchy, and potentially dangerous full-body X ray scanners. Once again, bureaucrats are not quite understanding why The People are opposed to their tactics and methods, along with their pompously official ways of explaining them.
The full body scanners are harmful to your health.
The enhanced whole body pat downs are harmful to your rights to privacy and freedom from unreasonable searches.
No wonder so many are demanding a change in strategy, and not just an improved communication about current policy.
The airport security methods controversy is expanding into the geek realm big time. Someone at YCombinator's Hacker News asks if member-submitted stories on X ray backscatter are being suppressed by humans or just the result of some esoteric site formula.
The airport security methods controversy is expanding into the geek realm big time. Someone at YCombinator's Hacker News asks if member-submitted stories on X ray backscatter are being suppressed by humans or just the result of some esoteric site formula.
How harmful are these airport full body scanners that are allegedly vital for airport security? 6 months ago, when I was investigating this, it was really difficult to find any contrarian opinions on the safety of these devices.
All the little medical and media lemming were all lined up, throwing caution to the winds, and praising the utter benevolence and benefits of full body scanning.
I eventually, after much Googling, found a professor of radiology at a California university who cried out loudly against the high dosage radiation inflicted on frequent fliers, but his voice was drowned out by the happy lala-landers who had their heads firmly buried in the sand.
[QUOTE]
Thanks to the looming holiday travel season, leaked X-ray images that were supposed to be kept private, and high-profile rebellion by pilots’ organizations and disgruntled passengers, anger is rising against the Transportation Security Administration’s new airport rules.
Under the policy, those chosen for extra screening face the dilemma of having their naked bodies revealed to TSA scanners or opting out and having agents feel them up in search of explosives.
But behind the outrage at being asked to surrender even more of our dignity just to get on a plane, there’s another full-body scanning issue simmering: the health dangers of radiation."
The back-scattering X-rays the TSA uses, however, aren’t like that at all—they penetrate just the clothes and the top layers of skin, and the scanner reads what’s reflected back. Because the full body scanners don’t need to go through your skin, they use less powerful radiation than the X-ray machines in the hospital.
That sounds good in theory, but it means the skin absorbs a bigger blast than it would in the hospital, and the professors say we don’t know the effects of that skin exposure well enough to say that it’s safe.
The FDA and the TSA, in all their responses, have repeated that the X-ray exposure and therefore the risk of full-body scanners is minuscule. But minuscule is not “non-existent,” and when you start exposing a large percentage of the flying public to more X-rays, there’s no such thing as completely “safe.”
-- Discover blog "What's the Real Radiation Risks of TSA Full Body X Ray Scans?"
[END QUOTE]
This frantic defense of TSA behavior seems to be partly due to recent embarrassments that TSA has nobly endured in the finest of democratic stylings. They've dropped the ball, or were the last ones to catch the ball, and other things of that nature.
A wounded animal is more vicious than an unharmed creature.
So TSA appears on TV and calmly denounces as preposterous any suggestion that their equipment and procedures are anything but impeccable, the best of all possible worlds, according to them.
Sometimes a media frenzy's a good thing. It can be the push that gets the ball rolling in freaky serious scrutiny of what poses as leadership. The whole enhanced pat down techniques controversy is sparking renewed interest in why certain people refuse the full body xray scan and what health dangers lie therein.
[QUOTE]
Thanks to the looming holiday travel season, leaked X-ray images that were supposed to be kept private, and high-profile rebellion by pilots’ organizations and disgruntled passengers, anger is rising against the Transportation Security Administration’s new airport rules.
Under the policy, those chosen for extra screening face the dilemma of having their naked bodies revealed to TSA scanners or opting out and having agents feel them up in search of explosives.
But behind the outrage at being asked to surrender even more of our dignity just to get on a plane, there’s another full-body scanning issue simmering: the health dangers of radiation."
The back-scattering X-rays the TSA uses, however, aren’t like that at all—they penetrate just the clothes and the top layers of skin, and the scanner reads what’s reflected back. Because the full body scanners don’t need to go through your skin, they use less powerful radiation than the X-ray machines in the hospital.
That sounds good in theory, but it means the skin absorbs a bigger blast than it would in the hospital, and the professors say we don’t know the effects of that skin exposure well enough to say that it’s safe.
The low-energy rays do a “Compton scatter” off tissue layers just under the skin, possibly exposing some vital areas and leaving the tissues at risk of mutation. When an X-ray Compton scatters, it doesn’t shift an electron to a higher energy level; instead, it hits the electron hard enough to dislodge it from its atom. The authors note that this process is “likely breaking bonds,” which could cause mutations in cells and raise the risk of cancer. [Ars Technica]
“They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays,” [says] Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine…. “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.” [AFP]
-- Discover blog "What's the Real Radiation Risks of TSA Full Body X Ray Scans?"
[END QUOTE]
This frantic defense of TSA behavior seems to be partly due to recent embarrassments that TSA has nobly endured in the finest of democratic stylings. They've dropped the ball, or were the last ones to catch the ball, and other things of that nature.
A wounded animal is more vicious than an unharmed creature.
Sometimes a media frenzy's a good thing. It can be the push that gets the ball rolling in freaky serious scrutiny of what poses as leadership. The whole enhanced pat down techniques controversy is sparking renewed interest in why certain people refuse the full body xray scan and what health dangers lie therein.
Cancer Causing Effects of Aiport X Ray Scans
According to an Australian news site, airport x-ray scanners pose a cancer risk:
[QUOTE]
[END QUOTE]
NPR has this report: "Scientists Question Safety of New Airport Scanners".
[QUOTE]
David Agard, a biochemist and biophysicist at the University of California, San Francisco stated:"But there really is no threshold of low dose being OK. Any dose of X-rays produces some potential risk."
Agard and several of his UCSF colleagues recently wrote a letter to John Holdren the president's science adviser, asking for a more thorough look at the risks of exposing all those airline passengers to X-rays. The other signers are John Sedat, a molecular biologist and the group's leader; Marc Shuman, a cancer specialist; and Robert Stroud, a biochemist and biophysicist.
"Ionizing radiation such as the X-rays used in these scanners have the potential to induce chromosome damage, and that can lead to cancer," Agard says.
The San Francisco group thinks both the machine's manufacturer, Rapiscan, and government officials have miscalculated the dose that the X-ray scanners deliver to the skin — where nearly all the radiation is concentrated.
[END QUOTE]
CNN "How Israelis Do Airport Security"
Daily Kos "Junk the TSA"
SF Gate "TSA Passenger Screening Manual Leaked Online"
CNET "Biochemist Says Naked X Ray Scanner May Be Unsafe"
CNET "Backlash Grows Against TSA Digital Strip Searches"
Wikipedia "Backscatter X Ray"
Mercola "Movement Grows for Halt of Airport Full Body X Ray Scanners"
CBS News "Outraged Bloggers Claim TSA Sexual Assault"
Huffington Post "Mood Music for Your TSA Pat Down"
80beats: Airline Passenger Refuses to Be Groped by Security; Becomes a Folk Hero
80beats: 5 Reasons Body Scanners May Not Solve Our Terrorism Problem
80beats: Body-Scanners in Courthouses Have Stored Thousands of Rather Personal Images
Discoblog: German Activists Protest Body Scanners by Stripping Down
Discoblog: Co-Ed Naked Airport Security: X-Ray Scanners Strip Search Passengers
The Privacy Coalition "Stop Whole Body Imaging"
NPR has this report: "Scientists Question Safety of New Airport Scanners".
[QUOTE]
David Agard, a biochemist and biophysicist at the University of California, San Francisco stated:"But there really is no threshold of low dose being OK. Any dose of X-rays produces some potential risk."
Agard and several of his UCSF colleagues recently wrote a letter to John Holdren the president's science adviser, asking for a more thorough look at the risks of exposing all those airline passengers to X-rays. The other signers are John Sedat, a molecular biologist and the group's leader; Marc Shuman, a cancer specialist; and Robert Stroud, a biochemist and biophysicist.
"Ionizing radiation such as the X-rays used in these scanners have the potential to induce chromosome damage, and that can lead to cancer," Agard says.
The San Francisco group thinks both the machine's manufacturer, Rapiscan, and government officials have miscalculated the dose that the X-ray scanners deliver to the skin — where nearly all the radiation is concentrated.
[END QUOTE]
READ MORE
CNN "How Israelis Do Airport Security"
Daily Kos "Junk the TSA"
SF Gate "TSA Passenger Screening Manual Leaked Online"
CNET "Biochemist Says Naked X Ray Scanner May Be Unsafe"
CNET "Backlash Grows Against TSA Digital Strip Searches"
Wikipedia "Backscatter X Ray"
Mercola "Movement Grows for Halt of Airport Full Body X Ray Scanners"
CBS News "Outraged Bloggers Claim TSA Sexual Assault"
Huffington Post "Mood Music for Your TSA Pat Down"
80beats: Airline Passenger Refuses to Be Groped by Security; Becomes a Folk Hero
80beats: 5 Reasons Body Scanners May Not Solve Our Terrorism Problem
80beats: Body-Scanners in Courthouses Have Stored Thousands of Rather Personal Images
Discoblog: German Activists Protest Body Scanners by Stripping Down
Discoblog: Co-Ed Naked Airport Security: X-Ray Scanners Strip Search Passengers
NPR stories:
New Airport Body Scans Don't Detect All Weapons Jan. 14, 2010
FDA Investigates Radiation Overdose At Hospitals Dec. 15, 2009
Radiation From CT Scans May Raise Cancer Risk Dec. 15, 2009
Examiner "Pilots Outraged Over TSA Intrusive Pat Downs"
ABC News "TSA Chief: No Second Thoughts About Security Measures"
Las Vegas Sun "Added Security Not Worth the Trouble"
Hot Air "Revolt: Orlando Airport to Drop TSA as Security Screeners"
Travel Weekly "Airport Screening Angst Prompts Launch of Consumer Site"
Red State "Another TSA Outrage"
Daily Telegraph "A Trained Eye for Suspicious Flyers Beats Body Frisk"
Huffington Post "ScannerGate and Unhappy Ending Pat Downs"
Reuters "Pilots and Passengers Rail Against TSA Airport Pat Downs"
The Economist "Checkpoint Groping: TSA Pat Downs"
NMA World Edition "TSA's Enhanced Security Measure Spur US Airport Outrage"
Examiner "Pilots Outraged Over TSA Intrusive Pat Downs"
ABC News "TSA Chief: No Second Thoughts About Security Measures"
Las Vegas Sun "Added Security Not Worth the Trouble"
Hot Air "Revolt: Orlando Airport to Drop TSA as Security Screeners"
Travel Weekly "Airport Screening Angst Prompts Launch of Consumer Site"
Red State "Another TSA Outrage"
Daily Telegraph "A Trained Eye for Suspicious Flyers Beats Body Frisk"
Huffington Post "ScannerGate and Unhappy Ending Pat Downs"
Reuters "Pilots and Passengers Rail Against TSA Airport Pat Downs"
The Economist "Checkpoint Groping: TSA Pat Downs"
NMA World Edition "TSA's Enhanced Security Measure Spur US Airport Outrage"
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