I looked for such a thread and didn't find it. I'm sure it exists. Anyway, scanner safety is a big issue for me. If the TSA would just prove their scanners were safe, about half of my beef with them would disappear. Since the won't, I'm really peeved.

http://www.tgdaily.com/opinion-featu...body-scanners#

They are not all backscatterr x-ray machines. There are some that are millimeter wave devices. The way that you can tell is that the MMW machines have plastic tube like windows that you can see through. The backscatter x-ray looks like a large foot locker that you stand next to.

Thanks. I agree that the MMW machines are probably safer. The negative speculation with respect to that technology hasn't been as worrisome.

That being said, I still think the TSA has been criminally stooopid not to simply prove the machines are safe. Transparency should be a lot easier than trying to steamroller the entire flying public.

I think you summed up the problem quiet well.

TSA is criminally stoopid!

Other major issues aside, on paper, the MMW machines operate in a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum than the backscatter machines. What they share in common is that both electronically strip search you. And, the procurement and operational specifications for both machines clearly state a requirement to record and save images, with only a password protecting you from TMZ.com.

There are numerous reports about the radiation safeety of the backscatter machines which the TSA has been on an incredible media blitz to defuse. No independent testing source has ever been given an operational unit to test without any constraints. According to the Johns Hopkins report, they recommended a keep-out zone of several feet around the device and about 14' above it. So, regardless of how you've opted out or avoided the strip search, give these machines a wide berth at all times.

Anyone who voluntarily subjects themselves to an industrial x-ray being administered by a non-medical screening clerk is simply beyond reckless. The agency who has convinced so many of its served citizens to line up for this industrial x-ray is downright criminal.

There is a lot of reading material on this subject.

Oh, I know. The machines cited below are very different from airport scanners, as was the one that caused serious and irreparable damage to Mrs. Fredd's late mother during cancer treatment.

Still, the following only underscores your point IMHO. Read the entire article if you don't understand why some of us don't put blind faith in "the experts" or the FDA, let alone in minimally-trained scanner operators:

[excerpts]

The initial accident report offered few details, except to say that an unidentified hospital had administered radiation overdoses to three patients during identical medical procedures.

It was not until many months later that the full import of what had happened in the hospital last year began to surface in urgent nationwide warnings, which advised doctors to be extra vigilant when using a particular device that delivers high-intensity, pinpoint radiation to vulnerable parts of the body.

*****
Dr. Howard I. Amols, chief of clinical physics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said some problems appeared to be “a combination of user error, coupled with neither the manufacturers nor the F.D.A. being able to anticipate a potential safety flaw in a ‘mix and match’ treatment delivery system.”

Dr. William David Bloomer, chairman of radiation medicine at Evanston Hospital, said the mistakes happened even though medical personnel there had followed the manufacturer’s instructions. “We rely on them to make sure the medical devices are safe,” he said.

Varian, the world’s leading manufacturer of linear accelerators, declined to be interviewed, but said in a statement that it has “deep concern” for accident victims and their families. “Our products include many built-in safety features, and we work continually to make them even safer,” Varian said.

*****
The F.D.A. approved the retrofitted linear accelerators with little review on the grounds that they were mere extensions of existing technology.

But since there is no requirement that all mistakes involving linear accelerators be reported to a central database, getting a handle on how often SRS errors occur is difficult. “Everybody says these are isolated incidents,” Dr. Bloomer said, “until you find out that maybe they are not so isolated.”

*****
Precisely why the jaws were open so wide is still in dispute. There is no indication that the State of Illinois or the F.D.A. has investigated the accident. No lawsuits have been filed. And Varian has declined to answer questions.

*****
Earlier this year, CoxHealth announced that it had overradiated 76 patients, most of whom had brain cancer, during SRS treatments. The overdoses had continued for five years because the hospital did not realize that its radiation therapy equipment had been set up incorrectly.

The hospital’s medical physicist, who was apparently accustomed to calibrating larger radiation beams, did not realize that smaller beams needed to be handled differently, radiation experts say.

A hospital spokesman said the physicist used the wrong calibration tool to set up the machine, causing the overdoses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/he...iation.html?hp

And if you need any more evidence suggesting that the TSA needs more oversight when it comes to using devices that emit ionizing radiation, just Google for "Therac-25" and do a little light reading.

From the aforementioned FDA? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I don't think I said the oversight needed to come from the FDA. (re-reads) Nope. I didn't say the oversight needed to come from the FDA at all.

That oversight could come from anyone with half-a-grain of common sense who knew that any exposure to ionizing radiation is a risk, and there's no such thing as a "safe" dosage.

So you only accept the doses that cannot be avoided or which provide more benefit than risk (flying in an aircraft, dental X-rays, medical X-rays, gamma knife therapy, etc) while avoiding the doses that are provided solely for theatrical purposes (like the TSA's circus freaks.)

The point is that "[s]ince 1990, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulated manufacturers to ensure the radiation safety of full-body x-ray security screening systems." The FDA is currently the only official game in town regarding oversight.

The TSA cites the FDA, and the claim that the FDA sidesteps safety concerns underscores the concern that sometimes their first priority appears to be the protection of their own collective backside rather than of the public.

Hardly.

It's just that all of the other parties with their fingers in the oversight pie currently have financial interests in making sure that the sales and implementation of the useless scanners continue, so they can line their own pockets - i.e., those members of Congress who use the "Oh, we need to protect you from those awful terrorists!" argument to roll out expensive, useless, and dangerous equipment while utterly failing to train their front-line workers.

Congress? Yes, at best they can conduct hearings, call experts who question the FDA's "findings," etc. Maybe there are enough of them who haven't taken donations from these companies to form a committee.

Simple solution, all be it impossible to implement. All Gov't personnel (president, cabinet, congress and DHS, TSA) be required to use the "advanced" scanners when ever they fly.

Currently, they get ushered past security altogether.

Welcome to FT mhm! ^ Don't forget the grope as well. Let's make both mandatory.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.138 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Fredd - thanks for bringing forth some very personal and probably painful evidence of radiation exposure. What's scary is that this was a medical procedure administered by medical personnel.

I have a friend who is in a very senior position in the FDA. I remember him telling me that the FDA has very little money available for truly independent research. Instead, they rely almost exclusively on drug company and industry self-certification. Further, because of the revolving door, it is very difficult to find a senior decision-maker without a conflict of interest. I'm an engineer and I certainly trust opinions of the physicists at UCSF and APL.