Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Scientists Cast Doubt on TSA Tests of Full-Body Scanners

The TSA claims that the full-body scanners are totally safe, but they won't allow any neutral scientists to verify this.

Scientists Cast Doubt on TSA Tests of Full-Body Scanners explains:

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The Transportation Security Administration says its full-body X-ray scanners are safe and that radiation from a scan is equivalent to what's received in about two minutes of flying. The company that makes them says it's safer than eating a banana.
But some scientists with expertise in imaging and cancer say the evidence made public to support those claims is unreliable. And in a new letter sent to White House science adviser John Holdren, they question why the TSA won't make the scanners available for independent testing by outside scientists.
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later in the article one scientist reveals:

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"There's no real data on these machines, and in fact, the best guess of the dose is much, much higher than certainly what the public thinks," said John Sedat, a professor emeritus in biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF and the primary author of the letter.
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Hat tip: Boycott Flying

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