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Cancer-Causing X-Ray Security Scanners Are Banned
By Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
Just in time to make you feel better about your holiday travels: full-body airport security scanners that use X-ray technologies are acknowledged to cause cancer. No problem in the US; but now they’re banned in the EU.
The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, adopted new rules about security scanners at European airports. And at the very bottom of the press release that discusses all sorts of issues is this:
"In order not to risk jeopardising citizens' health and safety, only security scanners which do not use X-ray technology are added to the list of authorised methods for passenger screening at EU airports. All other technologies, such as that used for mobiles phones and others, can be used provided that they comply with EU security standards."
Maybe in their 27-country manner, they let a French intern write the last sentence, but other than that, it’s pretty clear. The scientific community agrees that the risks are between small and tiny—but real: backscatter X-ray scanners use ionizing radiation that has been shown to damage DNA and cause cancer. From there, it’s just statistics. Put a number on this small risk and multiply it by the billions as people pass through these X-ray scanners over the years. The product will be the number of people who will get cancer from these scanners. That number will still be small. But it represents real people who will get real cancer.
In the US, however, the hullabaloo about ghostly gray-and-white pics of naked people floating around the internet monopolized the airtime, at the expense of health issues. In response, the TSA took measures to reduce the quality of the image and make it difficult for these images to leak into the Internet. The hullabaloo settled down. But the health concerns swirling around the backscatter X-ray scanners never got the full attention of the American public.
Which is unfortunate because there is an alternative technology: millimeter-wave scanners that use radio waves. Both will detect just about anything you have on you, from your secret stash of bourbon to a forgotten bottle cap. They do have limits, though: turbans, casts, prosthetics, etc. But one causes cancer, and the other doesn’t.
Backscatter X-ray scanners throw X-rays at the target and then record the rays that are reflected back (traditional X-rays go through the target and are recorded on the other side). Software converts the data into an image of a naked body.
Scientists disagree on how risky these scanners are, and they argue over the numbers. There is also the issue of how backscatter X-rays impact the body: the energy in these X-rays is concentrated on the skin and the tissue directly under it, rather than being absorbed by the entire body. Thus, concentrations are much higher on the surface of the body. The government says it's no big deal, that during a 42-minute walk outside, you're exposed to as much radiation. The doses are so minuscule, it says, that they pose no health hazard.
But... I lived in Manhattan on 9/11 (I was one of those who ran like heck to get away from the collapsing tower). A few days later, EPA Administrator Christine Whitman showed up next to a dour-faced Rudy Giuliani and declared that the EPA had analyzed the acrid toxic plume of smoke rising from Ground Zero, and that it posed no health threat. On September 18, the EPA issued a report that confirmed it. In it Whitman said, "The concentrations are such that they don't pose a health hazard.”
Alas, since 2003, we know that the White House had put pressure on the EPA to falsify the data and water down the report. Among the many things that became public was a memo in which Whitman required that all statements to the media be cleared by the National Security Council. Thousands of people, mostly first responders, have become severely ill, and some have died.
Okay, we can opt out. And I did that. It started a procedure of waiting, then the pat-down itself which took place in a booth, and then... The TSA officer told me to sit tight and wait. He walked out with the swab that he’d run over my laptop and luggage. I think he went to lunch. A while later, some other TSA officer stuck her head in and let me go. Total time elapsed for what should have been a two-minute pat-down: 48 minutes.
Perhaps it’s their way of teaching you a lesson. Better risk getting cancer. Which makes me wonder what powerful lobby is behind Rapiscan and other companies that make the backscatter X-ray scanners.
And how effective are any of these scanners at catching people who've forgotten to take out their nail clippers? Fairly effective. And at catching terrorists? Well, they haven't caught a single one yet.
Quibbles with the TSA? Well, its bigger step sister, the Postal Service, announced a staggering loss, and Congress will find a way to stick it to the taxpayer. But amazingly, if run right, it could be a decent business... Fixing The Postal Service Debacle.
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
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All this angst about TSA, x-rays, blah, blah, blah.
QUIT FLYING.
If you don't go, they won't matter.
If enough people stay put for a few months, the whole thing will come to a halt.
Of course, that means you might actually have to do something, or in this case, not do something.
Yeah and while your at it, QUIT BReathing!!! If enough people quit breathing, the whole thing will come to a halt.
Of course, that means you might actually have to do something, or in this case, die sheeple.
Second that. Its so easy. Suggest also not paying back Debt anymore. Nothing Doers rise!
The circus of minimum wage earning clowns pretending to ensure safety by various displays of technology is frustrating and painful to watch. When a real "terrorist" gets on the plane he/she will be working from the inside after getting one of those 8 dollar an hour security jobs. Stop embarrassing everybody by strip searching and acting like you couldn't blow up a plane with 100ml of nitro made in the plane in the bathroom.
Good Plan. Now that we all have to take off our shoes to enter the Mosque, the government decided it is more important to expose millions of people to a cancer risk then to prevent another 911. Can we spend more money on Homeland Security. We might have another underwear bomber that evades the airport security. The government is a ship of fools always reactive instead of prooactive. Steve Jobs ripped Obama and he was right to do so. One of his favorite quotes was by Wayne Gretzky (a sucessful hockey player). Skate where the puck is going. The government is still looking for the puck in the goal somewhere after it has already been scored and they lost 3-0.
Interesting to note that these machines will not detect the type of explosives that the underwear bomber singed his parts with.
So ... you believe the reasons the government gives for installing the security cordon around the US prison farm? Wow! They were right: There is one born every minute.
AIPAC and Chertoff are getting fabulously wealthy from the cancerboxes
they cook you medium rare with before boarding
and as David De Rockchild-a-fella sure likes to remind us"
"the cancer industry is a thriving trillion dollar a year business and supplies employment to millions..
people have to die of something so it might as well be cancer"
what a swell "fella".. ey?
Cancer is another small sacrifice Americans will gladly make for the War on Terror or whatever they call this perpetural resource war. Ingesting fluoride in our drinking water is another health sacrifice we all make here so that poor kids who are too poor to buy a tooth brush but rich enough to drink Mountain Dew all day will be able to have a full set of teeth until age 20. Because here it's all about the kids, the troops, fighting Al Queda around every corner, and now austerity measures ...and that's why this selfless nation is the greatest on country on earth. USA! USA! Fuck it. It's a prison here. Who am I trying to kid?
There must be some very disappointed would-be multimillionaire gubberment contractor out there wondering about the canceled contract.
Trust nothing this goverment is involved in and believe nothing they say. This is no longer America, it is a facsist regime no differnent than Eastern Europe where they detroy people, familes, finances and freedom, lie to you daily and use any and all means necessary to provide more power for the power hungry pigs in DC and the Jewish Banking bandits. Obama must be removed, and so must most of this disgusting congress. JP Morgan, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and the TBTF banks, need to be destroyed by the people and the pigs running them need to pay for what this shit did to this world.
Ah, US citizens love to banter about the overpopulated world.
At least, they have here one measure that will help the issue of overpopulation by claiming death where it matters, among the crowd of the overconsumers.
Not many will succumb, but still...
an elegant way to reduce social security payouts and support the nuclear industry at the same time.
the people most likely to die from cancer in the airports are in fact the pilots and flight attendants who are exposed to radiation their entire careers while cruising at 10,000 meters.
What I want to know is what is that substance they spray the cabin with "that poses no risk to humans" when you fly from Asia to EU or Australia? The harmless spray that they wont name by name.
My adult son is driving a full 1500 miles this Thanksgiving weekend to visit the family because he refuses to fly and go through the TSA's violating patdowns. So instead of supporting the airports with his business, his "airline ticket" money is going instead to gasoline and lots of venti-sized Starbucks.
Gotta love him. :)
European scientists have also concluded that water DOES NOT prevent dehydration.
Anyone who claims water prevents dehydration will be fined and/or jailed in europe:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8897662/EU-bans-clai...
Europe is a total joke. LOL good find.
Fools. Dehydration in Europe can only be prevented by drinking wine.
Read the END of the article
It's about "claims" & "medical promises"
In the EU we prefer less irrelevant blablabla on products.
What kind of fucking x-rays don't penetrate. These lying bastards talk over and over about "backscatter" and "skin". The picture is made from the backscattered gamma rays. But most of them don't backscatter. More than 99% don't backscatter, they either penetrate or are absorbed. If a gamma penetrates all the way through your body to the far side, THAT'S A GOOD THING. THAT WAS THE RARE, HARMLESS X-RAY. Most of them are ABSORBED by your body--these absorbed ones are the ones causing cancer. So--they shoot x-rays at you. A tiny amount are scattered back to the detector. A tiny amount go all the way through you without hurting you. And the VAST MAJORITY of them are ABSORBED, potentially causing cancer.
The article states it correctly and succinctly--it's all statisitics at this point. When you deliberately shoot ionizing radiation at hundreds of millions of people, there are guaranteed cancers. People will DIE because of these scanners.
And there will be NO terrorists captured, because these scanners, and all of the TSA theater, isn't about catching terrorists, it's about "coincidentally" catching petty criminals like smugglers and fugitives. People are DYING for this. It's insane. The DHS and our Congress are the terrorists. They are murdering Americans when non-lethal, non-ionizing radiation technology is concurrently being used at other airports. They are traitors.
They are murdering Americans when non-lethal, non-ionizing radiation technology is concurrently being used at other airports.
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Solution is quite easy: just assume that the people to be killed are non 'American'
Problem solved.
Those death machines wont kill any 'American' in the future.
Gotta love the US world order.
But before they do, they will fork their lifetime savings and get into debt deluded by the snakeoil pharmaceutical/medical industry and the medicare racket. Stockholm syndrome all the way to the grave!
I bet you Veritas Capital is involved, for sure.
No one should be exposed to cancer causing radiation when there are other ways to check for hidden objects. Americans are being exposed to cancer causing radiation because of the lobbying by the companies that manufacture this particular equipment and their shareholder's political connections. Everyone with a clue, knows, that companies getting Homeland Security money are often singly bid with very little concern for the safety of the American people. I went through one of these new scanners after being padded down manually because my jeans had zippers at the bottom. Please give me a break about 'safety' from terrorists. I'm more worried about getting cancer from the scanner! A little German girl ,about 5 years old, went in after me, her skirt had these metallic applique flowers. They had people lined up to zap with radiation, an elderly woman, an Asian man. It was like they had a quota to use the scanner on as many people as possible to justify their existence. Knowing what we know about the way that this kind of equipment is 'chosen', we can be assured that this is not the best, safest, or only system available. If we only had a free market, we would get a better solution.
If we were living in Germany in 1939, Liberals would be happily contributing taxes to the Fuhrer to build gas chambers. They would relish in the fact that this industry was providing Government contract jobs. Then, they would criticize the design of them by saying they weren't efficient enough, but would gladly accept a carbon tax to reduce their environmental effects. Next, Liberals would all dutifully report to their appointed place and time and patiently stand in line behind the chambers, because they were told to be there. As soon as they realized that only corpses were being rolled out of the back, they would complain about the lack of regulations and government oversight, but it would be too late.
Conservatives would have fought this government spending, fought the carbon tax, and never would have reported to stand in line. If they were corralled there, they would kill every single guard and escape.
How does it feel to be a Liberal pansy?
The term "Liberal" no longer bears true meaning to it's overt roots. There are only statists, limited statists-a broad category, and anarchists (anarchy being an ideology only because it is a transition to statism). Granted, there are people out there who believe that whatever government does is right-those people are getting a reality check. In terms of our 2 party false paradigm, we have statists and limited statists on both sides. I call the statists neocons as republicans and socialists as democrats. The neocons and socialists are one in the same AND those are the ones you have to worry about because they are in control with the "tea party" types attempting to put the brakes on. Conservative is a sham term that usurped and perverted the true meaning of Liberal. Liberals are few and far between in the false 2 parties. You will find a variety of liberals in the Libertarian Party. If you want a master, vote republican or democrat-if you want a leader, look elsewhere or get up and change the system.
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets.
The only true party left is the corrupt
that's why the elites stay behind the curtain. They put professional liars who appear to be popular with the populace to do the dirty work and when the mob gets mad, the anger is taken out on the politician not the oligarchy.
Amen
Some of us have parties here in the EU
This comment is the most pathetic rhetoric I've read this week.
Kudos
If I ever get cancer, I'm suing the US and EU. My kids should get a windfall.
Michael Chertoff is gonna loose a shit load of money now. I feel sorry for him.
P.s. HYM, HYM, FUCK HIM!
Scancer!!!
Google Michael Chertoff, and of course his co-triber Ben.
http://publicintelligence.net/the-chertoff-group/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapiscan_Systems
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/130439-body-scanner-manufacturers...
Joos love islamic terrorists....give state power over individuals to carry out wars, war debts, police state, sell security equipment to YOU paid by YOU to scan YOU.
Chertoff may have some joo heritage, but he fights for the Vatican (he's a Knight of Malta).
IMHO Being a "Knight of Malta" carries as much if not less significance than being a boy scout.
That's probably why they keep their membership so secret ... it must be because they're embarrassed at expending so much effort to commit to something so worthless!
The membership list, however, does not read like a list of 'boy scouts'.
he is a talmudic jew.... and the vatican has been under talmudic control for as long as there has been a vatican.
http://judicial-corruption.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Michael_Cherto...
Chertoff looks like a devil....he must have been one of those jews who sold gas ovens to nazis to kill fellow joos so that he can profit.
why do you think the usa keeps supporting islamist causes and leaders around the world? perpetual war driving mil ind complex?
Refusing to get cancer in order to create the illusion of safety is un-American. A real patriot would go through the scanner...TWICE, naked. And he'd send his children through as least twice if not more to show them what it means to be an American. Commies, Socialists, Islamists and Europeans are afraid of cancer...Not Americans. If Cancer was good enough for John Wayne, then goddamn it, it's good enough for me.
A real American Patriot is fully protected by their right to carry an 8" thick lard-shield around their body.
I totally agree. it's an excuse to desecure the world for the explosive variety of jihad leading to another 9/11.
http://expose2.wordpress.com
apparently there are still some people out there slow enough to believe that a small group of muslims brought down three large buildings with box cutters... that damn emmanual goldstein, er, radical muslims..... we will get them yet! NWO.
In fact, these X-ray-based scanners don't go far enough. A true American PATRIOT would allow himself to be hit by several doses of gamma radiation, proving he's not carrying any terror-causing knick-knacks, like Gatorade or shampoo, and perhaps turning him into The Hulk or Captain America in the process.
Then he would be available to fight all the Islamo-Commie-Nazis the world over. And all of his cool fighting gear would be manufactured by General Dynamics, and toy versions could be marketed to children via Lockheed Martin: Family and Recreation Division.
i would walk through it while drinking a glass or paraquat. Not.
From now on the TSA security grope will be known as "the full Sandusky".