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“I think it’s potentially a real danger to the public,” he said, noting that even a small dose could be risky for people predisposed to cancer. “This is an additional exposure.”

… a growing chorus of scientists and doctors say that even a small dose of radiation could pose unnecessary danger. Airport body scanners like those used in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando may pose a significant cancerthreat, particularly to those over age 65 and women genetically at risk of breast cancer, some medical experts warn.

The scanners in question use backscatter technology to create an image of a passenger, enabling security officers to see whether dangerous items are hidden beneath clothing. The problem, Dauer said, is the machines emit ionizing radiation.

“Ionizing means it knocks the electrons out of your body, which breaks your DNA chain, which can cause death or cancer,” he said.

The TSA has installed about 250 of the scanners at 40 U.S. airports, including 10 Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Backscatter machines also can be found in the Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston airports and at New York’s JFK.

The agency also uses more than 540 millimeter-wave scanners, considered a safer option because they don’t rely on radiation. Those machines are in use at Miami and Palm Beach international airports.

After a PBS/ProPublica investigation found the backscatter scanners could cause six to 100 cancer cases per year among U.S. passengers, European authorities prohibited their use at all European airports.

That prompted a renewed wave of concern in the United States.

“Why would you buy a machine that emits radiation if you could buy one that didn’t?” said Broward County Mayor John Rodstrom, a frequent flier who makes it a point to avoid the scanners……

comparing the scanners’ radiation to that received during an airline flight is “misleading,” according to a group of scientists from the University of California, San Francisco.

They said the cosmic radiation that infiltrates airliners is absorbed by the whole body and is thus less dangerous than the low-level radiation of the scanners, which permeates only the skin and underlying tissues. In addition to Dauer’s concerns, they said blood and male testicles could be endangered.

In a letter to the Obama administration, John Sedat, a professor emeritus in biochemistry and head of the University of California group, said scanner radiation poses a particular risk to those over age 65 and intensifies the danger to people who already have cancer or HIV. He said the risk to children, adolescents and pregnant women needs to be better evaluated.

The group further fears that if a device within the scanners – used to regulate the amount of radiation emitted – malfunctions, a passenger could be hit with a dangerous dose.

“Because this device can scan a human in a few seconds, the X-ray beam is very intense,” Sedat said in the letter. “Any glitch in power … that stops the device could cause an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin.”….

n a Nov. 23 letter to the TSA, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, called the health effects “an issue of great concern.”

Another congressional committee issued a scathing report in November, urging the TSA to develop more selective screening methods rather than treat all passengers as if they pose the same risk…… http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-tsa-scanner-concern-20111223,0,3778179.story?page=2