Medical doctors speak out about why they avoid naked body scanners at airports

Natural News, Apr. 3, 2011

For those still contemplating whether or not the radiation emitted from airport naked body scanners is serious enough to avoid, you may be interested to know that many doctors routinely "opt out" and choose the full-body pat down instead because they recognize the inherent dangers associated with any level of radiation exposure. A recent CNN piece explains that for many doctors, avoiding all sources of radiation whenever possible is just the smart thing to do.

"I do whatever I can to avoid the scanner. This is a total body scan -- not a dental or chest X-ray," said Dr. Len Lichtenfield to Cohen in an email. "Total body radiation is not something I find very comforting based on my medical knowledge."

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TSA to retest airport body scanners for radiation

USA Today, Mar. 12, 2011

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.

The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records — the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes — appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.

Are we safer yet? -Ed.
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