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Stop radiation body scanners at airports, use non-radiation types

Given that the two types of machines are both deemed effective by the T.S.A., why doesn’t the agency just abandon backscatters and use the millimeter wave machines, which don’t pose radiation issues?

Radiation Questions Over a Body Scanner, NYTimes.com, By JOE SHARKEY July 26, 2010 IN about two years, if all goes according to the plans of the Transportation Security Administration, those vintage airport magnetometer metal detectors will be replaced by electronic body scanner machines at all 2,200 security checkpoints in all 450 commercial airports in the United States….
travelers also do not fully trust the security agency’s assurances that the new machines are safe, that they can’t be defeated by a terrorist and that personal privacy will be protected — at least, to the extent the agency has claimed…….

As of last week, the agency had bought 250 backscatter units, which scan body surfaces using an “ultra low dose” of X-ray radiation, according to the manufacturer, Rapiscan Systems.

The T.S.A. says it had also bought 242 other body scan machines that use millimeter wave technology, which doesn’t emit radiation but uses “harmless radio waves,” according to its manufacturer, L-3 Security and Detection Systems.

As of last week, the agency said, there were 99 backscatter units and 43 millimeter wave units at 41 airports. The machines cost about $150,000 each…..

According to the agency, “a single scan using backscatter technology produces exposure equivalent to two minutes of flying on an airplane,” where slightly higher levels of radiation are routine. These safety issues are discussed at www.TSA.gov.

But others who have studied the technology argue that repeated low-dose exposure to radiation at airport checkpoints is a cumulative risk, and that the safety of the backscatter technology has not yet been adequately demonstrated by impartial research.

In a letter on May 28, several organizations and individuals, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Ralph Nader, asked Congress to stop deployment of the devices pending “an independent review of the devices’ health effects.”…….

Given that the two types of machines are both deemed effective by the T.S.A., why doesn’t the agency just abandon backscatters and use the millimeter wave machines, which don’t pose radiation issues?

On the Road – An Airport Body Scanner Raises Radiation Questions – NYTimes.com

August 2, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive