Readers Robert S. and Keith H. ask, what about the safety of TSA agents? They spend all day near these machines. What do their dosimeters show? Are they wearing protective aprons? Ask the TSA employees about this. Their safety is at stake as well.
Robert writes:
The pilots and crew unions have already informed their members of the dangers of x-ray exposure, but what about the TSA unions? These TSA agents are standing right next to these machines for up to 8 hours per day. While they may not get the full dosage of someone inside the machine, they are exposed to leakage and secondary emissions from these machines. Why are they not issued the lead aprons like x-ray techs at the hospitals? Why is TSA letting their employees be exposed to this type of danger? If we could get the TSA agents concerned about the risks, we may be able to get them out of the airports.
Keith says:
One thing to do is create doubt in the TSA agents minds about their own safety. Ask them about their dosimeters. Of course we all know that they don’t have any, they’ve been assured that there is no danger. But, if you have a medical or scientific background you know that’s untrue. Dental radiologists go into a shielded room when they do x-rays of people’s teeth. And those are unlikely to use as much radiation as the scanners do and are used less often. If you have particular knowledge or experience in such areas give references and express concern about the agents well being in such exposure.
We’re all in this mess together. Or are we? Do TSA agents have to go through the scanners to get to work? What about members of congress? The president?
The TSA agents and everyone else working in the area. The x-rays from the Rapiscan type scanners work using the Compton scatter method. The idea is that the photons emitted from the scanner bounce ALL OVER THE PLACE and only gradually lose power … but not until they’ve penetrated your body. In fact, absorption into the body is a fundamental aspect of AIT image creation. For a TSA agent manning the machine, the accumulated dose over 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, has to be enormous!
https://scrapthescanners.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/rapiscan-backscatter-scanners-reflection-and-absorption/
In operating rooms that use c-arm x-ray machines, the surgeons, nurses, and techs wear lead aprons to protect them against the rays that reflect back from the patient.
I’d worry most about danger to the thyroid; but you know what? If ionizing radiation kills the Wal*Mart Gestapo’s thyroids, and they end up fat[ter], permanently short of breath, constipated, and infertile (for women), no skin off my nose.
Opting out is no use if you get sexually assaulted. You need to focus on that too, especially the child abuse angle.
The worst thing here, is that I brought a sensible solution before the TSA and Homeland Secuirty along with my father (retired Lt. Colonel in the Air Force).
The proposal I put forward was for a system that protected our individual privacy while authenticating we were genuinely who we say we are.
Because my system forbids marketing of the information and takes every step possible to protect our individual privacy, I was summarily dismissed.
Had they invested less than 1,000,000.00 to design the prototype, we would not be needing al of this today. In fact, identity theft as we know it would have been gone as well.
You need to realize that what D.C. is doing is on purpose.
I can understand your feelings but the issue with the rub downs as I see it is the lack of proper training & screening for the TSA’s. Firstly they need to understand that passengers are not criminals no matter if they choose the rub down rather than being scanned or if they are flagged. I gave this issue little thought until I was waiting for a flight yesterday and overheard 2 grandmotherly types describe their rub downs. Did some reading about it today and realized there’s a chance I’ll get a rub down every time I fly as I have metal rods in my hip. TSA’s function is to protect us not intimidate us, somewhere at the tpp I doubt that message is getting through.
I’ve turned the opt-out into a fun game to humiliate the TSA agent.
I tell them I’m enjoying it, maybe even let out a little noise when they hit the right spot. Ask for their phone number and a cigarette after their done. I’ve made a couple more than uncomfortable already. Oh, and don’t forget to ask for a supervisor to watch too! Ask if they can both pat you down together.
Considering that the average TSA employee on the front line has the education and social skills of a gnat; we are lucky that they have not killed. I have seen things over the last 10 1/2 years that are apalling, and pat downs are just a minor part of the insult to citizens. All of this because we Americans can not simply and clearly define what a terriorist looks like and what their behavior will be…for fear of “profiling”. Really…come on?
I fly at least once a month and would fly more…but I drive if the destination is 8 hours drive or less. Not even the points matter any more…they offer me points to punish me further…he he he. NO THANKS!!!
Here’s a new story from the popular conservative blog Red State:
https://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2010/11/14/public-protests-as-tsa-torpedoes-constitution/
[...] of full body scanning. And, for pilots, it becomes an occupational hazard. But, ironically, those most at risk are the TSA agents who work around them all [...]
The TSA has a perfect record of failure. They have prevented nothing.
I don’t feel any safer because of the TSA. Why should my wife and children be strip searched to fly from Minneapolis to Kansas City when anyone can simply walk across either border? Just who does all this security protect?
Someone on another blog said, people should go into the machine and say “My skin, why is my skin burning! It’s burning!”… surely if enough people do this, that will put some fear into the general populace, and it may even affect some of them to believing the same (that the machine is burning their skin).
Just like some folks have wi-fi or mobile phone signal allergy, who’s to say there’s no porno-machine allergy/adverse effects (hint hint)…
You have to realize that the people working for the TSA are people just doing their jobs. They aren’t the ones who make the policies and most of them don’t particularly enjoy sticking their hands in other people’s groins all day long. Your average screener has no more power to change the TSA’s policies than you do.
What’s more, many of them are very, very concerned about the radiation from these machines and have had their concerns brushed off repeatedly.
If you want to make a change, you have to direct your efforts to the ones who really have the power – the TSA administration and the airlines – not the lowly screeners.
TSA’s use of AIT (Advanced Imaging Technology [millimeter wave & backscatter X-ray {ionizing radiation}]) has serious potential health risks that should not be taken casually.
The following personal history, regarding ionizing radiation, seems to be very relevant today.
In late 1965, I was assigned to the medical staff that was taking care of Fleet Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz (Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, Oakland, CA). The admiral was concerned that his health issues might have had some of their origins in the early unshielded RADAR used on some of the naval ships he was on during WW II.
To that end, the admiral requested the presence of his friend, Dr. John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph. D. (at the time, Director of Biomedical Research Division and Associate Director of Livermore National Laboratory). Dr. Gofman, who worked on the Manhattan Project (Glenn T. Seaborg’s team that discovered Pa-232, U-232, Pa- 233 and U-233), was asked by the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) to evaluate “the health effects of all types of nuclear activities”.
His research concluded “that human exposure to ionizing radiation was much more serious than previously recognized” and ” ‘by any reasonable standard of biomedical proof’, that there is no threshold level (no harmless dose) of ionizing radiation with respect to radiation mutagenesis and carcinogenesis.”
One of the main concerns of Dr. Gofman was that the effects of ionizing radiation are manifested 20 to 40 years later in the form of cancers and ischemic heart disease.
Although Dr. Gofman was considered by many of his colleagues to be a “crackpot”, he nonetheless was the foremost authority in our country of the biomedical effects of ionizing radiation. Supportive research originally published on PubMed.gov has sadly been hidden and the abstracts are not available on this site. Please check here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed to view 97 published abstract titles. The abstracts are available on his own website below.
FYI: The following URLs tell about the late doctor and offer a wealth of supportive documentation.
https://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/RMP/AboutAuthorF.html
https://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/RMP/index.html
Let’s not forget that even those of us who opt out are being hit with some of that radiation. From what I understand, they put the opt-outers right next to the machine, right?
I would say the same. These things are not only embarrassing and intrusive, but they are also pointless and ineffective to catch any real terrorists. The TSA thinks that they can just employ new gadgets that victimize America to “keep her safe” while common sense says that the next strike won’t happen the same way. Nor are we going to have a fudge bomber, or a Christmas present bomber. Perhaps it’s time to give the TSA a piece of what they’ve been doing to airport security in the past. Perhaps it’s time to just sue the TSA.
I will never get on another airplane. I will not be radiated by the naked body scanner and sure won’t be groped. I wish more people cared about this. it is very discouraging that so many people are so accepting of this. We the sheeple. The terrorists have won, they got us to give away our fourth ammendment rights. They are laughing at us. First the shoe bomber and we had to take off our shoes, then the underwear bomber….and we have to take off all our clothes. Wonder what little scheme they’ll dream up next and which rights we’ll give up in the name of security? Do we even deserve any rights anymore? BE A GOOD AMERICAN and refuse to fy or if you’re really brave be like the “junk” guy and refuse the NBS AND the groping. It’s your patriotic duty.
Will someone have the balls to strip in public in front of the TSA instead of getting touched? That should make some noise in the press..