Originally Posted by
InkUnderNails
So, if it is all the same, and it is everywhere, why are there different standards for dealing with different types? Would you be willing to guarantee that the radiation in your machine will cause no damage? Or is the risk of a few people getting cancer fine, as long as you can try to catch a few bad guys?
I am not that concerned about it, but some here are as the mystery around the calibration and testing of the machines, not to mention the training of the operators is unverifiable. What we get is "Trust us, we only care about your safety." We do not believe you.
Calibration and upkeep of the machines are taken extremely serious. It is at the airport in which I work as it should be at every airport nationwide. I am no scientist but the machines (from our regular X-ray machines for bags as well as the AIT's---or NoS as you all so lovingly call them) have been tested for safety by OSHA on a regular basis. The levels have been tested as far as how much i (if any) is being emitted from the machines to the officers that are in the immediate vicinity or operating it, as well as the individual as going through that machine since some of us have been screened by the AIT's as a part of training as well as a part of normal screening. Just as OSHA tests the noise levels of the airport in which we work to ensure that it is a safe working environment they do the same for the other machinery as well.
It is not my place to coerce someone into going through with the AIT screening. If a person chooses to opt out then that is their right. Just the same as the women who say they can't go through a metal detector because they are pregnant and they don't want the X-rays to harm their unborn child
(the walk thru has a magnetic field, not x-rays...and they stand off to the side of the walk-thru directly next to the x-ray machine which will cause more harm by standing next to the opening of the x-ray machine than just walking thru the walk thru metal detector) but nonetheless I screen them without going through it because it is their right.