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What difference does it make whether they know or not? AFAIK TSA knows of at least 3 independent studies done by different Universities of harmful radiation fr
by joering2 9y ago
What difference does it make whether they know or not? AFAIK TSA knows of at least 3 independent studies done by different Universities of harmful radiation from backscatter machines; yet it didn't stop them from using those and making pat downs more invasive so even less people opt out.
Unless some technology is capable of killing more than few percent of population, government is the last to worry about statistics.
- 2bitencryption 9y agolink to these studies? backscatter machines are considered complete safe, from what I understand. they use radio waves (not ionizing radiation) the same as phones/microwaves, and the waves don't even penetrate skin (or else they wouldn't be very effective, would they)? you have nothing to worry about, medically, from them. I guarantee you're being bombarded right this moment with a similar amount of energy in a similar portion of the spectrum from Wifi, phone calls, bluetooth, FM/AM radio, GPS radio, etc.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoI think GP is referring to these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray whereas you're thinking of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millimeter_wave_scanner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millimeter_wave_scanner. They are compating technoogies; the former employ ionizing radiation, the latter do not. I don't really know which ones are employed on US airports right now, but backscatter X-rays were employed at some point, which generated a bit of media shitstorm few years back.
- 2bitencryption 9y agoAh, yes, my mistake. I was aware the TSA used X-ray machines at some point, but I thought those were phased out long ago. I absolutely would refuse to get into one of those.