TSA Backtracks On Body Scanner Radiation Study Promise

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Cancer causing machines are formally banned throughout Europe

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
November 16, 2011

In a move we predicted the moment the words left his mouth, TSA head John Pistole has reneged on a promise to the Senate to instigate further studies into the safety of radiation firing body scanners.

A fortnight ago, Pistole told a Senate homeland security committee hearing that the agency will commission further independent research into the safety risks associated with full body scanners currently in use in almost all major airports in the U.S.

“I am concerned that there’s a perception that they’re not as safe as they could be,” Pistole said after claiming that independent studies have already proven the technology safe.

Now Pistole has changed his mind, however, suggesting that a forthcoming inspector general’s report validates earlier conclusions that the machines are not harmful and negates the need for further study.

In a new Senate hearing held earlier this week, Pistole stated:

“My strong belief is those types of machines are still completely safe… If the determination is that this IG study is not sufficient, then I will look at still yet another additional study.”

Pistole repeated the claim to CNN, stating:

“…there are those who continue to express concerns, and so I want to do everything that I can to reassure those people that these machines are as safe as possible.”

“That being said, I just learned about an inspector general report that is in draft form that validates those prior studies, so that may suffice,” Pistole said. “We’ll work with Congress to see whether that addresses their concerns.”

Of course, it is hardly surprising that the TSA is backtracking. Pistole has previously made promises in testimony before the Senate, regarding TSA policy, that have simply been later ignored, forgotten about and flouted.

As the CNN article highlights, the IG report, still weeks away from release, only focuses on how the TSA monitors and maintains the backscatter machines, rather than the safety aspects associated with them.

“What I asked for — and what the administrator committed to — was an independent study on the health effects of AIT (advanced imaging technology) machines, not just a study on whether TSA is doing an adequate job of inspecting, maintaining and operating AIT machines, which I understand is the approach of the inspector general’s report” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in a written statement.

“I hope the Obama administration is not backing away from an independent study,”Collins said, noting, “Travelers are concerned that the radiation emitted from these machines may be damaging to passengers’ health.”

The issue of body scanner safety was once again thrust into the spot light recently with the publication of a report by ProPublica, in conjunction with PBS NewsHour, detailing how the “U.S. Government Glossed Over Cancer Concerns” as it rolled out the scanners into airports.

The other major finding to come from the report indicated that the Food and Drug Administration went against the advice of a 1998 expert panel, which recommended the agency set a mandatory federal safety standard for the machines. Several members of that panel said they were concerned about widespread use of X-ray scanners, including in airports.

At the beginning of this week, the European Commission formally adopted guidelines prohibiting the use of X-ray body scanners utilizing ionizing radiation in European airports.

“In order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety, only security scanners which do not use X-ray technology are added to the list of authorized methods for passenger screening at EU airports.” a press release reads.

With this in mind, Americans now have little excuse for tolerating what they are currently being subjected to at the hands of the TSA.

  • A d v e r t i s e m e n t
  • TSA Backtracks On Body Scanner Radiation Study Promise

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is currently locked in a battle to force the Department Of Homeland Security to disclose documents containing radiation testing results, agency fact sheets on body scanner radiation risks, and images produced by the machines.

EPIC has filed a motion for summary judgment in its ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the DHS.

EPIC previously obtained hundreds of pages of documents detailing the radiation risks presented by the machines.

The documents revealed that the TSA, and specifically the head of the Department of Homeland Security, “publicly mischaracterized” the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in stating that NIST had positively confirmed the safety of full body scanners in tests.

The documents, including internal TSA emails, also revealed that TSA employees are greatly concerned by a surge in cancer cases among their number. Agents stationed at Boston Logan airport directly voiced their concerns to a TSA representative who promised to relay them to TSA headquarters.

The TSA has thus far refused to address the scores of real independent scientists who have continued to speak out over the health hazards associated with the x-ray technology, noting that the body scanners are far from safe.

Numerous highly respected universities and health bodies, including Johns HopkinsColumbia University, the University of California, and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, have all warned that the health threat posed by the scanners has not been properly studied and could lead to increased cancer rates.

John Sedat, a University of California at San Francisco professor of biochemistry and biophysics and member of the National Academy of Sciences told CNet that the machines have “mutagenic effects” and will increase the risk of cancer. Sedat previously sent a letter to the White House science Czar John P. Holdren, identifying the specific risk the machines pose to children and the elderly.

The letter stated:

“it appears that real independent safety data do not exist… There has not been sufficient review of the intermediate and long-term effects of radiation exposure associated with airport scanners. There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations.”

The TSA has repeatedly stated that going through the machines is equal to the radiation encountered during just two minutes of a flight. However, this does not take into account that the scanning machines specifically target only the skin and the muscle tissue immediately beneath.

The scanners are similar to C-Scans and fire ionizing radiation at those inside which penetrates a few centimeters into the flesh and reflects off the skin to form a naked body image.

The firing of ionizing radiation at the body effectively “unzips” DNA, according to scientific research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The research shows that even very low doses of X-ray can delay or prevent cellular repair of damaged DNA, yet pregnant women and children will be subjected to the process as new guidelines including scanners are adopted.

The Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report on the matter that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.

Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”

“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,”reported Bloomberg.

Scientists at Columbia University have also entered the debate, warning that the dose emitted by the naked x-ray devices could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated, likely contributing to an increase in a common type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma which affects the head and neck.

“If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk. The population risk has the potential to be significant,” said Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s centre for radiological research.

In related news, a Congressional report released this week to mark the tenth anniversary of the TSA, has labeled the agency an “ineffective” “bloated bureaucracy”, concluding that it has done nothing to improve aviation security.

Drawing on the deployment of failed technology that has wasted millions of dollars, the report also declared that 500 Advanced Imaging Technology devices have been deployed throughout the nation in a “haphazard and easily thwarted manner”.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.


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22 Responses to “TSA Backtracks On Body Scanner Radiation Study Promise”

  1. If they are safe we need to put one around Pistole desk and zing him all day with it. We must make sure his desk never has a bomb planted in it. After all , we want to keep Pistole safe from the terrorist. We care about you Pistole? We want to keep you safe from the CIA, MI6, and MI5(terrorists) After all Pistole you are the only one that can save us from the CIA.

    Matzo Man Reply:
    November 17th, 2011 at 10:57 am

    Yes he did say: ‘“My strong belief is those types of machines are still completely safe…”‘

    I don’t think we should put him in this machine. I think we should put his wife and children in this machine, all day. It’s completely safe right?

    dncholas Reply:
    November 17th, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    Make his office into a giant scanner and test it on him hourly so he can prove how safe they are. Put one of those machines at TSA HQ and make the executives in charge have to be scanned coming and going since they believe how safe these things are.

  2. “500 Advanced Imaging Technology devices have been deployed throughout the nation in a “haphazard and easily thwarted manner”

    I still have yet to understand how this technology can help identify whether someone is a threat or not. I’m completely confused. All it does is show what kind of mood I’m in or what my face looks like. It’s like a photographer or an artist trying to use their photo to argue how the person is feeling in the image. It’s all theoretical and completely subjectively biased.

    dncholas Reply:
    November 17th, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    Make the entire federal government have to walk through these machines on a daily basis since they are so safe.

    pebkacrtfm Reply:
    November 17th, 2011 at 4:46 pm

    wait what the AIT machines are for scanning under the clothes not facial threat IDing two totally different machines. they can use the cameras in the airport to do that

  3. PIatole go eat shit with the Sol Alinksy double speak. This is typical Sol Lainsky style Marxism; Two steps forward and one step back. None buys it you NAZI puppet prick.
    _______________________________________________________

    NO WEATHER SAGA TODAY

    HEATHER IS EXEMPT HENCE FORTH. THE SWEET SOUTHERN SOUL MUST REST. REALITY IS JUST TO HARSH FOR THOSE JUST ENLIGHTENED.

  4. you all are starting to see what its like when you let women run shit. come to think of it, i cant recall the last time we even had a president that resembles a man in the slightest, you elect pussies, you get pussy shit.

    Plague of Smiles Reply:
    November 17th, 2011 at 12:43 pm

    “elect???” What world are you in? There are no elections, only the illusions of free will. Elections are now a charade. Rigged diebold dupe stations, rigged to support only those candidates willing to serve the Federal Reserve and Wall Street banksters.

    reconscoutsniper Reply:
    November 17th, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    Nikobullshit is like “Cain” and “Perry”‘

    ========== “HE DOESNT BRAIN TOO GOOD”, EITHER ================

    He is a racist. He is also a Liar and has been called on it many times with no response from him.

    Gee…….cant imagine why.

    Bravo2……..out

  5. Now if one of us, not a member of the elite, were to bombard someone with radiation, we would be arrested for assault. What if someone were to make a citizen’s arrest on a TSA employee who irradiated him or her? Think of the fun that would be. TSA would have to prove in court that the scanners were safe.

    Just an idea.

    pebkacrtfm Reply:
    November 17th, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    would never make it that far because when you try to arrest them you will the one to get arrested

  6. X-rays are known to cause cancer. He is a total idiot and should be fired. He also lied to Congress.

  7. The Israeli’s have a better device now. They put passengers in a chamber and if they are carrying an explosive device it blows them up….seemples.

  8. only 1 criteria for being hired as government goon
    you must lie about everything and believe all your lies..
    aka pathological liars and psychopaths only need apply for government work..that’s it
    a short application indeed for government work and the benefits are great
    the more you lie the more money from thin air they give ya
    the best liars are all at the top..Obumma..Hitlery..timmy Kikener..Ben Bubbles Shalom Bernanke
    Biden..McInsane McCain..Joey leeberman..Chuckie Shoemer etc etc etc..

    Chertoff made sure he found the very best of the very best of the best liars .ol Mr.the microwaves are so safe babies can play in them all day Pistolee
    liars figure and figures lie and liars figure and figures lie and liars figure and..
    lie lie lie lie lie lie lie

  9. I agree that when you get women as evil as Bull Dyke Napolitano and her Marxist agenda against American Constitutionalists, these kinds of destructive programs get shoved down our throats. If we had people in our government that cared about its citizens….this f-ing shit would stop but NO – we have to put up with being poisoned and irradiated just because we want to fly in our own country. F-ing Detroit is so paranoid that they are swiping your hands for anything they can find while you stand in the line and then they force you to go thru the bad machines because they shut down the other one….SOB’s! I hate DTW airport. F-ing Michigan is a bunch of rotten A-holes for allowing this to happen. Every other airport is same.
    Every horrible thing they can do to us is part of the agenda with this administration. They are all sicko’s and I can’t wait to see Napolitano hung for these crimes. She has a lot of murders on her hands. They just keep marching to hell, don’t they? Ron Paul might be able to get her fat ass out of office but they’re all a bunch of murderers. The whole lot of them! Vote them all out and start over!

  10. Here’s an amazing occurance just reported to me this past week. One of my in-laws freind’s son went through a body scanner at the airport and was told to empty his pockets. He said he had. They told him they saw 2 large masses in his abodomen and that he had to comply and empty all his pockets. He told the agents again that he had. After patting him down they let im go through as they couldnot find anything.

    He saw his doctor last week and was told, after an x-ray that he had 2 hernias in his abdomen. When he told him what happened at the airport, hs doctor was shocked, saying the amount of radiation from the TSA body scaners had to be equal to an x-ray machine and very strong to have picked up the “2 abdominal masses” that were, in fact, his hernias. The doctor told him he would never fly again, and that he shouldn’t either.

    In May, my father-in-law was told he had Acute myloid leukemia. He has been flying for his business for decades. He never bothered to “op-out” despite my warnings. There was no other possible reason why he would have AML if it wasn’t from the body scanners (and maybe the radiation found in the plane).

    We are being wiped out, and “they” are making billions in health care costs and treatments at our expense. I will never fly again, unless to leave this forsaken country. Americans are basically lazy and stupid, they have NO clue about the Constitution nor do they care. They think IT will take care of them without their standing firm and using it against the very tyranny our Founding Fathers warned us about. It s depressing to see the NWO escalating their agenda without so much as a whimper from the people. And worse it is happening globally not just here.

    Spymyeys Reply:
    November 17th, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    @jacko,

    Im gald the information you related to us here and im sorry for father in law’s cancer diagnosis.
    Alot of the variations of leukiema are cause by long-term exposure to toxic chemicals.

    BENZENE

    is the #1 cause for most leukiema paitents.

    It is found in almost every single product that is made from petroulem products and it is used in some of our foods as well.
    Check-out his work history and the chemicals he was exposed to over the longterm as well as his home enviorement. Like working in a garage woodshop, painting, stripping, or refurbishing.
    Those types of things will most likely be the culprit when it come to a blood-cancer.

    I know, cause I have lived with it for 5 years now and have been searching for answers as to how I got poisoned being a healthy 40 year old man working manual labor 6 days a week.
    In less than 11 months I was turned into an 80 year old invalid, but hey, Im still alive!

  11. These machines still cannot identify the type of bomb that was supposedly used to implement the machines in the first place. Never mind that tons of TSA workers that work around these machines are being diagnosed with cancer.. no connection there.. I’m sure they all had cancer before taking the job, yeah, that’s it.

  12. Pistole had to backtrack on this in order to keep the contracts in place. There’s a lot of money at stake here and I’m sure Napolitano is getting kickbacks from former Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff….

  13. Napolitano, Pistole and co. will pay sooner or later for their abuse of the travelling public. It will be a joy to observe…….

  14. Put em in matching His His Cookers for him and th.at Napolitano Dude
    Bet these assholes would change their opinion then
    😉

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