Are Body Scanners Dangerous to Your Health?

Click Here to Read John Whitehead's Commentary

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Dear Rutherford Institute,

Thank you very much for taking an active stance and helping us helpless citizen masses who oppose TSA's UnConstitutional Procedures. As a citizen I feel so helpless. I don't feel that my elected government representatives are responding at all, while those appointed at the TSA and Homeland are exceeding their power. As an American citizen, this is the first time I ever felt government oppression personally.

Also, I do not see any mentioned anywhere how these horrendous procedures are affecting someone like me. I see discussions and articles about how the TSA pat-downs can be traumatic for sexual assault victims. The truth is, the scanners and the pat downs are traumatic for any victim of physical abuse. I was not a sexual assault victim, but was a victim of child abuse and violence. While it is my own personal matter to overcome any related issues as an adult now, the idea that another person can randomly exercise authority over my body, whether by the scanner or pat down, without being justified by probable cause, is personally threatening beyond words. Just the thought of it makes me feel ill and sick to my stomach. I cannot imagine that I'm the only victim of violence who feels this way. Just the knowledge and thought of what the TSA would do to me if I pass through airport security, brings back memories and familiar feelings of being subject to physical abuse; the feeling is that another person doesn't treat you as anything with worth, that you are nothing but a piece of garbage, and they can lay a hand on you anytime or expose you as something less than human by taking away your basic human dignity (such as making you stand with your arms up like a monkey in the scanner, while someone can view every part of your body).

I am an expat living overseas. I had originally planned to return to the US to spend X'mas and New Year with friends and family back home. I have since changed my travel plans after the TSA adopted these new rules. Janet Napolitano says there are other transportation options. But for international travel, there is no real option other than to fly into Canada and drive in to the US, and drive back to Canada to fly out. With the current situation, I do not think I can return to the US at all until I repatriate when I don't need to board a plane in the US. (Right now I will need to return to my job and family in my foreign country of residence.) I feel exiled by the TSA.

I travel globally and have been through many airports. Travelling is a big part of an expat's life. I am not an un-concerned or ignorant person when it comes to airport or flight security. I do not see how the scanners or the enhanced pat down will do anything. A terrorist can just as well blow himself up inside the scanner or at the pat down. There are other more effective measures than these.

So thank you for taking a stand on behalf of us.

Sincerely,
Alexa C.

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Your article in the Monroe Evening News this Sunday (11-28) was great. I never use to read the paper or care much to hear about the news but I've been getting into it and noticing how horrible our government has become. Your absolutely right when you say "we have to recognize that we are ruled by an elite class of individuals who are completely out of touch with the travails of the average American".. Our government could careless about our health or maybe even our safety at that..the only thing they care about is being powerful over us, the people.. You should talk about the government in future articles in the newspaper... Maybe people will start to wake up and actually start to worry about what's going on in our country and stop worrying about the wrong things such as what's going on, on the Jesey Shore or what the new fashion trend is this month...
Good work keep it up

Sincerely,

Missy

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Don’t forget that we are not only being irradiated at the airports. These mutation machines are mobile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGAIJVk1028

http://www.as-e.com/products_solutions/z_backscatter.asp

Alex Z.

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Sir

Good points, well made; especially the parts about the ruling elite being exempt. But where's the problem?

Is it the scanners themselves, the mindset that creates the 'need' for them, the sheep-like passive acceptance of them, or the reliable tolerance of your huddling masses towards ever-increasing impositions?
What happens if we project trends? (Brrr, let's not go there ... )

Is there an answer?

Yes. But it isn't in democracy American style, it's in Democracy. Huge difference, and yes, we in New Zealand are no more democratic than you in "the Land of the Free".

Think about it, in a democracy* how long would you have to put up with this stuff? And if you feel like this about the TSA, was the survey quoted recently in Casey stating to the effect that 'eighty percent of Americans think the Aviation Security measures are a great idea' in error, or a falsehood? Why should you object when so many think it's wonderful?

I offer that some people may gripe a bit about it but in the end they will accept it. If their choice is take all their clothes off in public and cavort across a stage before entering the aircraft in the nude — or not fly — most will strip off and cavort. It may even come to that ...

I don't have any answers. None beyond getting rid of your systems as they are now and bringing in Democracy—which until people can think qua Think wouldn't be a good thing.

In New Zealand I'm putting together some thoughts on a revolutionary idea which would involve the banning of ALL political parties in the first instance and having democratically elected representatives; who can only implement decisions made by their electorates via democratic processes.

Sir, I perceive your nation as a truly noble social experiment gone horribly wrong, hijacked and perverted by the self-serving and very clever. I wish you the best of luck.

Regards

John H. (New Zealand)

* a la Lincoln: the old "Government of, by, and for, the people" (v. the ubiquitous "Government of the people, by the party, for the party").

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How would anyone know if they "turned up" the scanners during an alert? They do that quite often with the metal detectors, but everyone can tell. Possibly the scanners are designed to also see internally to detect implanted explosives as well if they feel it is "necessary".

Dave

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Good going John!

But now that they have backed down on screening pilots, how about broadening your lawsuit into a class action to defend all citizens whose dignity and constitutional rights have been violated. Actually, I don't know if a class could be certified against the US government. But if we don't stop these unreasonable searches and violations now, they will be indiscriminately checking body cavities next.

Perry T.

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Sir:

I have instituted my own “opt-out” policy regarding airport security. I won’t be flying at all until this lunacy is halted.

It is interesting however, that this was started just before the heavy travel holiday season. John Pistole and Janet Napolitano will continue to push this madness until the traveling public pushes back. I hope that we push back very hard.

Charles B.

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Here’s what the American College of Radiology says. Would appreciate your comment. Thanks.

Rich B.

ACR Statement on Airport Full-body Scanners and Radiation

(Originally Posted January 2010) - Amid concerns regarding terrorists targeting airliners using weapons less detectable by traditional means, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is ramping up deployment of whole body scanners at security checkpoints in U.S. airports. These systems produce anatomically accurate images of the body and can detect objects and substances concealed by clothing.

To date, TSA has deployed two types of scanning systems:

Millimeter wave technology uses low-level radio waves in the millimeter wave spectrum. Two rotating antennae cover the passenger from head to toe with low-level RF energy.

Backscatter technology uses extremely weak X-rays delivering less than 10 microRem of radiation per scan ─ the radiation equivalent one receives inside an aircraft flying for two minutes at 30,000 feet.

An airline passenger flying cross-country is exposed to more radiation from the flight than from screening by one of these devices. The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP) has reported that a traveler would need to experience 100 backscatter scans per year to reach what they classify as a Negligible Individual Dose. The American College of Radiology (ACR) agrees with this conclusion. By these measurements, a traveler would require more than 1,000 such scans in a year to reach the effective dose equal to one standard chest x-ray.

The ACR is not aware of any evidence that either of the scanning technologies that the TSA is considering would present significant biological effects for passengers screened.

The ACR encourages those interested in learning more regarding radiation associated with imaging and radiation oncology procedures as well as radiation naturally occurring in the Earth’s atmosphere to visit www.radiologyinfo.org.

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Dear Mr. Whitehead,
Thank you for your editorial in today's LewRockwell.com- a wonderful site, is it not.

I think the word you meant in your last paragraph was "timidity," not "temerity."
Temerity means boldness, and certainly Americans have not been bold in
containing the state.

It seems to me that the body scanners have nothing whatsoever to do with
security. Their aim is simply and solely to humiliate and terrify the public.
I do not believe the government should be granted the dignity of being
taken seriously any longer.

Kind regards,

Caryl J.

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You are so correct in your evaluation. The solution can be one simple word......PROFILE. We need to get over being politically correct, and see that the Israeli solution of profiling passengers at Ben Gurion airport is the most viable answer.

The day we stop worrying about being politically correct, we will have made a step in the right direction.

Respectfully,

Vladimir C.