DHS X-ray Car Scanners Now At Border Crossings 295
OverTheGeicoE writes "CNET has a story on DHS' whole car X-ray scanners and their potential cancer risks. The story focuses on the Z Portal scanner, which appears to be a stationary version of the older Z Backscatter Vans. The story provides interesting pictures of the device and the images it produces, but it also raises important questions about the devices' cancer risks. The average energy of the X-ray beam used is three times that used in a CT scan, which could be big trouble for vehicle passengers and drivers should a vehicle stop in mid-scan. Some studies show the risk for cancer from CT scans can be quite high. Worse still, the DHS estimates of the Z Portal's radiation dosage are likely to be several orders of magnitude too low. 'Society will pay a huge price in cancer because of this,' according to one scientist."
Here's a fix. (Score:5, Insightful)
We should have a one-day travel strike, where nobody travels except on essential tasks. Repeat regularly until results are obtained.
When the TSA starts costing businesses money, our bought-and-paid-for Congress will rein them in.
(Heh, you probably thought a B&PFC wasn't good for anything.)
This will definitely increase cancer risks (Score:5, Insightful)
This will definitely increase cancer risks. In particular, it allows the Department of Homeland Security to spread and thrive.
Re:I don't think it's X-Rays (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, as the guy below stated, freedom-loving Americans (and foreigners with business in the 'States) need to be more proactive at expressing their displeasure of the DHS.
Re:Here's a fix. (Score:5, Insightful)
Only when properly calibrated! (Score:5, Insightful)
This assumes professional calibration! This should read "The average energy of the X-ray beam when calibrated by an apathetic TSA employee is a hell of a lot more than three times that used in a CT scan calibrated by a hospital technician"
Re:social security (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I don't think it's X-Rays (Score:5, Insightful)
You do realize that your average trailer, the kind that semis pull around, has barely any metal in it, right? I've seen in the back of hundreds of them over the years and they're actually mostly wood with a thing metal covering to protect against the rain. It's probably not any thinker than the metal in a soda can.
Re:This will definitely increase cancer risks (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a reason why the X-ray technicians usually leave the room when X-rays are being taken. Just being in the same room ensures that you'll get at least some exposure. The new digital equipment is better than the older ones were, but you're still talking about additional radiation.
Re:The CT Scan Claim from TFA (Score:5, Insightful)
At the same time, medical ethics permits that risk because the potential benefit is higher and accrues to the patient undergoing the risk. No such benefit exists for a DHS scan. We get all the risk but no benefit.
again (Score:5, Insightful)
So, in addition to the pile of civil liberties and massive mounds of cash, we also get to have cancer and miscarriages inflicted on innocents in the name of the failing war on drugs.
Re:Here's a fix. (Score:5, Insightful)
Getting? It was ridiculous eight years ago. At this point, they've crossed the line into gross criminal negligence, reckless endangerment, and willful malfeasance. They should not merely be abolished. They, along with everyone who voted to create them, should be sent to prison with very, very long terms to set an example for anyone who might contemplate usurping the Constitution of this great nation in the future.
Throwing them out on the street with no jobs is way, way too good for these unAmerican traitors.
Re:Only when properly calibrated! (Score:2, Insightful)
Indeed.
Who thinks these things will have some kind of "high power mode" for scanning lorries with thicker plates, or just because regular mode doesn't penetrate very well?
Who thinks that "high power mode" will end up being turned on 90% of the time?
Seems like the terrorists won (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Here's a fix. (Score:4, Insightful)
Safety? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:social security (Score:4, Insightful)
The US has the best healthcare in the world, as long as your insurance is good and properly paid. Get your health insurance cancelled, you'll go bankrupt just trying to stay alive.
Killing US citizens... (Score:2, Insightful)
... one cancer at a time. The terrorists will thank you the favour. :P
Re:I don't think it's X-Rays (Score:5, Insightful)
Then you're probably better off emigrating ASAP.
Make them eat their own dogfood (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand why the government officials that are funding/sponsoring this crap aren't forced to go through all the scanners and such.
Why do they get to fly on private jets and such without having to go through the same invasive searches as the rest of us.
Someone should make all of congress and the executive branch go through this crap before they board their own "all first class", caviar and champagne filled jets.
How much fuel and money could we save if instead of putting congress/executive branch in first class chairs, we stuffed them into cattle car like the rest of us that fly?
To quote Animal Farm, "All animals are created equal, yet some animals are more equal than others."
Re:I don't think it's X-Rays (Score:5, Insightful)
Freedom loving Americans, that takes me back to my childhood to just before the fall of the U.S.S.R. Freedom loving Americans vs the Freedom Hating Commies.
Strange, some of the stuff we are doing now to preserve our freedom would sound like B-rate uber-U.S.S.R. activities back then.
Re:Only when properly calibrated! (Score:5, Insightful)
For its part, Homeland Security says the dose is safe and based on commonly accepted government standards (PDF) established by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement, which would permit 2,500 scans a year for each person. CBP's specifications also require the manufacturer to "perform an evaluation of the potential effect of radiation exposure on public safety on the proposed system." In addition, a CBP representative told CNET that the machines are currently only used in secondary inspections (most people go through just the primary inspection).
I think, as a good will gesture, the Director/CEO of the TSA and his family should undergo 2,500 scans a year.
Then I'd think about believing it's safe.
Re:I don't think it's X-Rays (Score:4, Insightful)
Harassing TSA agents, DHS inspectors, or even the police is counter-productive. While there are "bad apples" who abuse their authority, most are just regular people trying to do a job which means constantly dealing with pissed off people. After a stint in a support and warranty call center, I can really sympathize with them -- there's nothing THEY can do about it, same as I couldn't wave a magic wand and make a warranty valid a few weeks after it expired, no matter HOW much a customer yelled at me.
Stick to hounding the government and the three letter agencies that make the DECISIONS to deploy these people, but let them do their job until their jobs are eliminated.
Re:I don't think it's X-Rays (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was in the 4th grade, our social studies teacher explained that America was better than "Russia" because of a number of things they did that we didn't do. Every day, we are doing more and more of those things right here in America.
Re:I don't think it's X-Rays (Score:5, Insightful)
You weren't actively harming people. You were not acting against their Constitutional rights. You weren't acting against their human rights. The TSA agents may very well be actively harming people. Just following orders has been determined NOT to be a valid defense even for a draftee in the military. It certainly isn't for a civilian job with the TSA.