FOIA docs reveal cancer cluster in TSA workers

EPIC v. DHS Lawsuit -- FOIA'd Documents Raise New Questions About Body Scanner Radiation Risks
Posted on June 24, 2011


In a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, EPIC has just obtained documents concerning the radiation risks of TSA's airport body scanner program. The documents include agency emails, radiation studies, memoranda of agreement concerning radiation testing programs, and results of some radiation tests. One document set reveals that even after TSA employees identified cancer clusters possibly linked to radiation exposure, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters - safety devices that could assess the level of radiation exposure. Another document indicates that the DHS mischaracterized the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stating that NIST "affirmed the safety" of full body scanners. The documents obtained by EPIC reveal that NIST disputed that characterization and stated that the Institute did not, in fact, test the devices. Also, a Johns Hopkins University study revealed that radiation zones around body scanners could exceed the "General Public Dose Limit." For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security - Full Body Scanner Radiation Risks and EPIC: EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of Body Scanner Program).


http://epic.org/2011/06/epic-v-dhs-lawsuit----foiad-do.html


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Meanwhile the media distracts with scanning of 95-year-old women....

Worked there for 3 years. Always wore a film badge that was constantly monitored for exposure.

When these scanners came out, it was gangbusters for Michael Chertoff and his investors at Rapiscan. Couldn't get them in airports fast enough.

I've flown several times during the last couple of years...never went through the Rapiscans. Always managed to "get in the line" for the metal detector.

But I remember seeing TSA spend considerable amounts of time scanning passengers and thinking to myself "No one's wearing film badges...no one is being monitored." It was bad enough exposing passengers to this radiation let alone TSA agents who work around it daily.

And this is "bad" radiation...absorbed by the skin. When I worked at the hospital, a tech told me x-rays that go through the body, like the kind taken to see broken bones, are much less dangerous than x-rays absorbed by tissue.

And no one has really explained how much radiation the human body is absorbing with these scanners.

and I worry about them, and the lack of ... radiation monitoring.

they keep saying that people are exposed to no more radiation than they get by flying, so it is perfectly safe. However I don't buy it and wouldn't go through one either. How anyone can trust them is beyond me.

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has alzheimers. I would not with that for her.

Believe me, I know what you mean. My father just died due to cancer last year. A very fit man for his age, yet fitness doesn't negate cancer.

that. my papa died of complications of treatment for lymphoma. My sweet mom went ten months later of an aneurysm. Nothing good comes from illness it seems. Take care.

that the alarmist have a pretty good track record. Oh yeah right about cell phones I forgot that was all the way last week.

it's why I keep a list. I ignore people with a track record of lying or spinning on issues which turn out to be untrue multiple times. I kept seeing it and decided not to alert, but to just place them on ignore.

TSA Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUzpykxWh20