Safety Of Airport Scanners

Safety Of Airport Scanners

Is it safe when we step into that body scanner at the airport? It is claimed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that the advanced imaging technology devices are just as safe as the traditional metal detectors.

In post-911 the x-ray tunnels quickly became standard at all commercial aviation facilities nationwide, claiming the amount of low-intensity radiation emitted was safe. It was also claimed that they released less than 10 microREMs of radiation per screening, which is equivalent to what an airplane passenger might incur after to or three minutes of flying at cruising altitude.

This debunked claim revealed that concentrated radiation blasted directly at a person’s body is much more harmful than the random patterns of ionizing radiation sent from the cosmos and an airplane’s navigational equipment during flight. Then TSA introduced a different, “safer” type of technology – the millimeter wave machine.

According to TSA on millimeter wave imaging technology, they say it “uses harmless electromagnetic waves to detect potential threats, which are highlighted on a generic outline of a person appearing on a monitor attached to the unit. If no anomalies are detected, an ‘OK’ appears on the screen with no outline.” TSA’s explanation was deliberately misleading at worst. Looking into millimeter wave technology and the ways it affects the human body during a TSA screening, reveals that the doses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the TSA’s millimeter wave technology machines CAN cause cancer. In other terms, millimeter wave radiation microwaves your skin. Heat literally goes through the travelers’ bodies at the cellular level using ultra-high frequencies not normally found in nature, and microwaves operate at nearly the same frequency as the machines.

Just skip the full body scanner and opt for a pat down. This will minimize your radiation exposure and also minimize the risk of development of cancer. Even though the pat down is physically invasive and unconstitutional, it is still better than being blasted with a concentrated vortex of electrical and magnetic energy. A full body scanner exposes each square centimeter of your body to about 0.013 milliwatts of radiation, which is enough to induce gene mutations, nerve damage, sterility and even cancer.

It has also been reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) that millimeter waves not only heat the skin but also can damage eyesight and cause cancer, particularly skin cancer. This type of wave technology is used in the treatment of skin cancer due to its known skin-treating properties, which means it has an effect on human cells. Our bodies aren’t bowls of soup to be heated.

Take a little more time, tuck away your embarrassment in having a pat down and just remember that it’s for your own health and might possibly help you to avoid cancer. This is every individual’s right and decision to forgo a full body radiation scan and allow a manual body pat down instead.
-Dr Fredda Branyon

img c/o airport