X-ray vehicle scanners at border crossings and their health risks

[ack]

Interesting article

 

[amirm]

Hard to imagine any kind of x-ray which penetrates the vehicle metal structure but won't be dangerous to humans. We raise the chances of thousands and millions of people potentially getting cancer in order the save the lives of those who might get hurt otherwise. Two bad choices.

I travel a lot and opt out of the body scanners. You should see the dirty looks I get when I ask to opt out. They do everything in their power to force me to go through anyway. I was going through Denver airport recently and I said I like to opt out. The guy gave me a dirty look and told me to go stand in line. I said what line. He points to the line of people going the machine. I said I am not going through the machine. He said I had to go through the line anyway. I repeated again that those people are going through the machine and I am not. He told me I was trying to jump the line. I reminded him again that all of those people were going through the machine and I was not. At that time he simply turned his back to me and walked off. So I shouted and asked for his supervisor. He gets the supervisor and starts to make his case and to his credit, the supervisor told him he was wrong and asked me to go through. To not have a program to screen people like me in advance and not put me through such his hassle is just crazy.

 

[DaveyF]

Amir, how funny, I had a similar experience the last time I flew overseas. Like you, I will not go through the body scanners,and like you I got a VERY dirty look and a lot of hassle. In my case, the TSA cops decided that they needed to take me to a private area and do a pat-down. ( Very strange and at the time, a little nerve wracking) Anyhow, in my case, I was a little perturbed by the behavior of these TSA cops ( i wasn't using this name in my mind at the time)...one of whom was severely out-of-shape..probably weighing well over 400 lbs so I began to discuss with them the amount of Rem's that the machine gave off and to instruct them of the radiation exposure that they were exposing themselves to on a daily basis...( remember I was a little peeved by their behavior)...Well, you should have seen the color that their faces turned as I walked away

 

[Bruce B]

People, you get more radiation on that flight you're about to take than any body scanner will ever give you in a lifetime!

 

[jazdoc]

Gang, I'm a practicing radiologist and Bruce is absolutely correct.

The dosage of a TSA scan is ~ 2.5 days of natural background radiation (even less days of background radiation if you live in Denver). This is ~ 1/4 the dose of single CXR. NO study has ever demonstrated deleterious health effects of radiation at this low level.

Another way of looking at risk, is to look at the Relative Risk of 1 in a million chances of dying of activities common to our society:
Smoking 1.4 cigarettes (lung cancer)
Eating 40 tablespoons of peanut butter
Spending 2 days in New York City (air pollution)
Driving 40 miles in a car (accident)
Flying 2500 miles in a jet (accident)
Canoeing for 6 minutes
Receiving 10 mrem of radiation (cancer) -- this is 100x greater than a TSA scan.

 

[amirm]

People, you get more radiation on that flight you're about to take than any body scanner will ever give you in a lifetime!

Oh, I don't do it for safety sake. I do it as a personal protest. I figure if I create work for them, maybe they won't be in hurry to deploy it all the time . The aggravation in taking a flight keeps going up and up. It has to have a limit at some point....

 

[NorthStar]

In Russia the police is about to use a laser that can detect if you have a drink (by smelling alcohol), while driving in your car!
...I mean like a laser speed detector (but here, alcohol, not speed).

It works (tests), but is not yet in real use, I believe, unless it is.
{A young guy invented it with a sophisticated and yet simple system at the same time.}

* Problem is that if a passenger had a drink, and not the driver,
the detector will still trigger the alarm.
That could be a 'small' problem indeed.

 

[ack]

Hard to imagine any kind of x-ray which penetrates the vehicle metal structure but won't be dangerous to humans. We raise the chances of thousands and millions of people potentially getting cancer in order the save the lives of those who might get hurt otherwise. Two bad choices.

I travel a lot and opt out of the body scanners. You should see the dirty looks I get when I ask to opt out. They do everything in their power to force me to go through anyway. I was going through Denver airport recently and I said I like to opt out. The guy gave me a dirty look and told me to go stand in line. I said what line. He points to the line of people going the machine. I said I am not going through the machine. He said I had to go through the line anyway. I repeated again that those people are going through the machine and I am not. He told me I was trying to jump the line. I reminded him again that all of those people were going through the machine and I was not. At that time he simply turned his back to me and walked off. So I shouted and asked for his supervisor. He gets the supervisor and starts to make his case and to his credit, the supervisor told him he was wrong and asked me to go through. To not have a program to screen people like me in advance and not put me through such his hassle is just crazy.

I refuse the scanners as well, all the time, as well as the private room. Yes it's all about making a point, hence I tell them I feel more comfortable being searched out in public and I want everyone to witness this (I suspect there is also an F-U type of grimace on my face); but suffice it to say that my wife was with me last time when I got searched in public and she couldn't stop laughing - the TSA "guy" was clearly annoyed...I don't think I care...

 

[jazdoc]

Reminds me of this: