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Airline pilots highlight cancer danger of repeated radiation scanning

radiation experts from the University of California, San Francisco, warned President Obama’s science assistant that the machines pose potentially serious health risks…..

World’s largest pilot union shuns full-body scanners The Register Warning cites radiation risk By Dan Goodin  San Francisco , 9th November 2010 The world’s largest independent airline pilot association is warning its members to avoid security screening by full-body scanners out of concern the machines emit dangerous levels of radiation.
The American Pilots Association, which represents about 12,000 pilots, is recommending members instead submit to new pat-down searches, even though critics have described them as “horribly invasive” and likened them to foreplay. The recommendation is based on concerns that, contrary to claims by the US Transportation Security Administration, the types of X-rays emitted by the machines could pose serious risks that still aren’t well understood.

“We are already subjected to larger amounts of radiation by flying long distances at high altitudes,” Captain Sam Mayer, who is the APA’s communications committee chairman, told The Register. “While the TSA is telling us it’s completely safe, that may be true for the occasional user, but we haven’t seen any data yet talking about the long term cumulative effects of this over time.”

The pilots are by no means alone in voicing concern over the safety of the backscatter X-ray scanners, which are also known as advanced imaging technology. In April, radiation experts from the University of California, San Francisco, warned President Obama’s science assistant that the machines pose potentially serious health risks…..

World’s largest pilot union shuns full-body scanners • The Register

November 10, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | AUSTRALIA, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive