Has the government known since 1998 that the TSA body scanners could be giving you cancer? An explosive report has exposed the carcinogenic effects of X-ray body scanners, finding that up to 100 United States airline passengers each year could get cancer from the machines. Despite the report coming out years ago, millions of Americans still walk through the carcinogenic TSA X-ray body scanners, also known as naked body scanners. While many passengers may not develop full blown cancer as a result, radiation is truly unsafe at any dose. Furthermore, the long-term usage of the X-ray body scanners have not been fully studied - the number of cancers caused by the machines may actually increase over time.
In 1998, a panel of radiation safety experts got together to analyze a new security device called the Secure 1000, which was designed specifically to beam X-rays at people to see underneath their clothing. The experts pointed out in their evaluation that the machine violated a basic principle of radiation safety - they stated that humans simply should not be X-rayed unless there is a specific medical benefit.
Previous research confirms cancer link
The research suggested that anywhere from 6 to 100 US passengers could develop cancer each year as a result of passing through the naked body scanners. The findings correspond with the statements of Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University's centre for radiological research. Dr. Brenner warned that children and people with gene mutations whose bodies are less able to repair damage to their DNA are most at risk.
"If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk. The population risk has the potential to be significant," said Brenner.Yet the TSA still claims that the naked body scanners are completely safe, issuing no warning over the link to cancer - not even a warning to those who are especially at risk as highlighted by Dr. Brenner. It appears that not only are the TSA body scanners intrusive upon personal privacy, but they are also health destroyers.
According to Joe Vialls, in this article [Link]Joe hypothesizes that lung mucous protects from radiation because it forms a protective barrier ("Deadly radioactive particles inhaled by a smoker would initially be trapped by the mucous layer").
So, all we need to do is employ a bunch of smokers at airports to cough up a bunch of lung snot, and we could cover our bodies with it, and be safe from these radiation emitting scanners! Nevermind that radiation penetrates anything less dense than lead, lung snot is magical! While we're at it, we should be donating lung snot to all the workers at Fukashima to help keep them safe as well. I can't believe that no one has thought of this brilliant idea before!