3 ms·
if the backscatter system operates correctly That's putting a lot of faith into the TSA.
by ghurlman 15y ago
if the backscatter system operates correctly
That's putting a lot of faith into the TSA.
- _delirium 15y agoEven leaving aside whether the TSA is well-run or not, the lack (as far as seems to be publicly known) of a rigorous risk analysis is a bit troubling. Not just as far as the medical questions go (e.g. what's a safe exposure level), but just standard engineering stuff. For example, since backscatter machines work by scanning a narrow beam very quickly over the body, a particularly problematic failure mode would be the beam remaining energized but failing to move, which would give a very high localized dose. Even if that "can't happen", you would typically have some sort of failsafe that should rapidly cut off the beam in that case. If this were a medical device, there are fairly well established ways of doing failure-mode analysis to quantify that risk and the reliability/speed of the failsafes. Have companies like Rapiscan done that?
- nobody31415926 15y agoThere is a huge difference in the dose even from properly certified medical X-rays, depending on how old the machine is, the maintenance, the settings and the method selected http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/ct-scan-radiation-may-cause-cancers/article1400123/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/ct-scan-radiation...