[ RadSafe ] " 'Naked' scanners may pose danger: scientists "

[Jaro Franta]

Apologies if someone as already posted this....

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Naked+scanners+pose+danger+scienti
sts/3823426/story.html 
'Naked' scanners may pose danger: scientists
  AFP November 13, 2010 6:18 AM   U.S. scientists warned yesterday that
full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners that are being used to screen
passengers and airline crews at airports around the United States may be
unsafe. 

"They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get
skin cancer from these X-rays," said Dr. Michael Love, who runs an X-ray
laboratory at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at
Johns Hopkins University School of medicine. 

"No exposure to X-ray is considered beneficial. We know X-rays are hazardous
but we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly
that they will risk their lives in this manner," he said. 

The possible health dangers posed by the scanners add to passengers' and
airline crews' concerns about the devices, which have been dubbed "naked"
scanners because of the graphic image they give of a person's body,
genitalia and all. 

A regional airline pilot last month refused to go through one of the
scanners, calling it an "assault on my person" and a violation of his right
to privacy. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began rolling out full-body
scanners at U.S. airports in 2007, but stepped up deployment of the devices
this year when stimulus funding made it possible to buy another 450 of the
advanced imaging technology scanners. 

A group of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
raised concerns about the "potential serious health risks" from the scanners
in a letter sent to the White House Office of Science and Technology in
April. 

Biochemist John Sedat and his colleagues said in the letter that most of the
energy from the scanners is delivered to the skin and underlying tissue. 

"While the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume
of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high," they
wrote. 

The Office of Science and Technology responded this week to the scientists'
letter, saying the scanners have been "tested extensively" by U.S.
government agencies and were found to meet safety standards. 

But Sedat told reporters yesterday that the official response was "deeply
flawed." 

"We still don't know the beam intensity or other details of their classified
system," he said, adding that UCSF scientists were preparing a rebuttal to
the White House statement.