[ RadSafe ] MD says TSA Scanner is Health Risk

[Otto G. Raabe]

>November 29, 2010

I've read all the stuff that has been posted, but I don't have a firm 
understanding of the actual radiation dose to the skin from the TSA 
scanner low energy x rays or what fraction are involved in back-scattering.

Low energy x rays are readily absorbed by the skin and 
back-scattering to the detectors should involve a very small fraction 
of the impinging photons. The high-resolution images (which are 
rarely shown on the web) must involve higher doses to the skin and 
higher intensity for the "regions of interest".  I don't know how much higher.

I am not comfortable with the dose estimates that I have seen.

Otto


**********************************************
Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
Center for Health & the Environment
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
E-Mail: ograabe at ucdavis.edu
Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
***********************************************