{"id":185036,"date":"2011-11-02T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2011\/11\/02\/trust-the-tsa-episode-xlvix\/"},"modified":"2011-11-02T16:28:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-02T21:28:00","slug":"trust-the-tsa-episode-xlvix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2011\/11\/02\/trust-the-tsa-episode-xlvix\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust the TSA, Episode XLVIX"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It turns out that their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/u.s.-government-glossed-over-cancer-concerns-as-it-rolled-out-airport-x-ray\">airport scanners cause cancer<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"color: blue;\"><p>On Sept. 23, 1998, a panel of radiation safety experts gathered at a Hilton hotel in Maryland to evaluate a new device that could detect hidden weapons and contraband. The machine, known as the Secure 1000, beamed X-rays at people to see underneath their clothing.<\/p>\n<p>One after another, the experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration raised questions about the machine because it violated a longstanding principle in radiation safety \u2014 that humans shouldn\u2019t be X-rayed unless there is a medical benefit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think this is really a slippery slope,\u201d said Jill Lipoti, who was the director of New Jersey\u2019s radiation protection program. The device was already deployed in prisons; what was next, she and others asked \u2014 courthouses, schools, airports? \u201cI am concerned \u2026 with expanding this type of product for the traveling public,\u201d said another panelist, Stanley Savic, the vice president for safety at a large electronics company. \u201cI think that would take this thing to an entirely different level of public health risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">Research suggests that anywhere from six to 100 U.S. airline passengers each year could get cancer from the machines<\/span><\/b>. Still, the TSA has repeatedly defined the scanners as \u201csafe,\u201d glossing over the accepted scientific view that even low doses of ionizing radiation \u2014 the kind beamed directly at the body by the X-ray scanners \u2014 increase the risk of cancer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though it\u2019s a very small risk, when you expose that number of people, there\u2019s a potential for some of them to get cancer,\u201d said Kathleen Kaufman, the former radiation management director in Los Angeles County, who brought the prison X-rays to the FDA panel\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p>As for the TSA, it <b><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">skipped a public comment period required before deploying the scanners<\/span><\/b>. Then, in defending them, it relied on a small body of unpublished research to insist the machines were safe, and <b><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">ignored contrary opinions from U.S. and European authorities that recommended precautions, especially for pregnant women<\/span><\/b>. Finally, the manufacturer, Rapiscan Systems, unleashed an intense and sophisticated lobbying campaign, ultimately winning large contracts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(<i>emphasis mine<\/i>)<\/p>\n<p>You have to love the Security Theater Industrial Complex.<\/p>\n<p>This ain&#8217;t about keeping us safe, it&#8217;s about extracting money from the 99% for the benefit of the 1% by creating an atmosphere of unreasoning fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It turns out that their airport scanners cause cancer: On Sept. 23, 1998, a panel of radiation safety experts gathered at a Hilton hotel in Maryland to evaluate a new device that could detect hidden weapons and contraband. The machine, known as the Secure 1000, beamed X-rays at people to see underneath their clothing. One &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[970,1150,1069,1061],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-public-health","category-science","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}