I’M FROM THE GOVERNMENT…

The wise words of President Ronald Reagan, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.'” occur in my mind when I ponder over the mounting outrage concerning the Transportation Security Administration’s latest course of action scanning of travelers.

ELEVATED DOSES OF RADIATION FROM TSA BODY SCANNERS A REASON FOR TREPIDATION

An assembly of knowledgeable specialists expressed their unease to Obama’s science and technology adviser John Holdren. Dr. John W. Sedat, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, UC, San Francisco and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, in a well-thought-out memo was joined by three other similarly credentialed faculty members in expressing their concerns in that letter dated April 6, 2010. In that communication they expressed “concerns about the potential serious health risks” about the “the dose to the skin may be dangerously high” that the TSA is subjecting passengers too at airports across the United States. In that memo they pointed out that radiation amplifies cancer jeopardy by harming the DNA and a mixture of components within the cells.

WHAT THE RADIATION INVADES, NOT THE DOSE, IS WHAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

The scanners the Transportation Safety Administration makes use of concentrate nearly all of the radiation on the surface of the skin and invade a few millimeters into the skin. The anxiety is that there are a quantity of very radiation-sensitive tissues close to the skin such as testes, eyes, and circulating blood.

In light of this, it looks to be regarded with suspicion to contend that the dose being administered is a thousand times less than a chest X-ray, or, that it is considerably less than what airline customers are exposed to while flying in the airplane. It is the amount of the tissue exposed that is important when the effects of radiation are evaluated.

ARE YOU, OR SOMEONE YOU CARE FOR, IN ONE OF THESE CLASSES?

Babies, little kids, pregnant women, older people, people having impaired immunity (those with HIV infection, cancer patients, people with immune deficiency disorders, and people with defective DNA repair mechanism are various groups of those that are at a more advanced risks than others. At this time the TSA is not differentiating between these groups based on the hazards.

Older people are also in a individual class when it comes to radiation exposure. Their DNA accumulates a sizeable amount of unrepaired harm, to the point that even small doses of radiation can trigger the growth of skin cancers, including melanoma which can have the  potential of becoming deadly. Subjecting their eyes to low doses of radiation is also a concern, since exposure to radiation can raise their danger of developing cataracts.
WE CANNOT COUNT ON THE AUTHORITIES

Remember when the American College of Radiology reassured us that the CT scans were safe and that the radiation amounted to one chest X-ray. At the present we have learned that the dose that is in a CT scan is equal to 1,000 chest X-rays. Based on the past, it can pretty much be predicted that when the real effects of these full body scanners on health become recognized, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and the remainder of the “officials” who insist the scanners are harmless will be long gone.