This morning, I read TPao's diary about TSA and her arrest with an increasing feeling of foreboding. It is only a matter of time before my military family comes face to face with one of these airport body scanners and I will have to say No thanks for myself and my kids. No thanks to the intrusive scan and no thanks to the intrusive body search that would follow, especially for my underage kids.
I decided to talk to my husband about it and his lack of concern about the machines worried me more. He has faith that the government knows what it is doing. I am afraid I don't have that faith this time around.
So I decided that I needed to do some homework. I needed to prove to my husband that my concerns are valid, not just some trumped up fear.
My homework turned up some interesting facts that you may like to know for yourself.
I started off with info from Geekesque in a comment in TPau's diary, a link to an article, Court: TSA's full-body scanners do not violate the Constitution. If the courts have found this legal, it makes it even harder to convince my husband that I'm not slowly going crazy.
But in today's diary, TPau mentions how unsafe the machines are. She has done her own homework and her background as a doctor makes me believe her. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a diary backing her claims and my husband is unlikely to be convinced, even though they share service in the USAF and she has a medical background. He will want to know facts.
Time to search the internet.
My search took me almost immediately to EPIC. I had never heard of this non-profit before but they have been around since 1994 and focus on issues of privacy and civil liberties.
Basically, court cases are still on-going. Geekesque led me astray with an article that only had partial information. I felt that the article that Geekesque shared with me led me astray.
EPIC Files for Rehearing in Airport Body Scanner Case: Citing significant errors in an earlier decision, EPIC has petitioned a federal appeals court to rehear the organization's challenge to the TSA's controversial body scanner program. "The court overstated the effectiveness of the body scanner devices and understated the degree of the privacy intrusion to the travelling public," stated EPIC President Marc Rotenberg. EPIC's petition challenged the Court's finding that the devices detect “liquid and powders," which was never established and was not claimed by the government. EPIC also argued that the court wrongly concluded that the TSA is not subject to a federal privacy law that prohibits video voyeurism. The panel found that TSA body scanner employees are “engaged in law enforcement activity," contrary to the TSA's own regulations. EPIC is pursuing related litigation on the government's deployment of mobile body scanners. For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. DHS. (Aug. 30, 2011)
As I clicked on more links, I found more troubling facts. For example, Germany rejected the body scanners because, after 10 months of testing, they proved to be ineffective:
The German government halted the full roll out of American body imaging scanners in the nation's airports today after the Interior Minister said the devices sound too many false alarms -- including at times mistaking underarm sweat for dangerous chemicals.
So added to my concerns of safety and of civil liberties, is the concern that our government is wasting money on a technology that may not even do the job they intend it to do.
My research only compounded my fears about radiation:
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."
I found a letter from several professors at UCSF, the renowned medical school, to Dr. Holden, the assistance to President Obama for science and technology. Here are there primary concerns:
• A) The large population of older travelers, >65 years of age, is particularly at risk from the mutagenic effects of the X-rays based on the known biology of melanocyte aging.
• B) A fraction of the female population is especially sensitive to mutagenesis-
provoking radiation leading to breast cancer. Notably, because these women,
who have defects in DNA repair mechanisms, are particularly prone to cancer,
X-ray mammograms are not performed on them. The dose to breast tissue
beneath the skin represents a similar risk.
• C) Blood (white blood cells) perfusing the skin is also at risk.
• D) The population of immunocompromised individuals--HIV and cancer
patients (see above) is likely to be at risk for cancer induction by the high skin
dose.
• E) The risk of radiation emission to children and adolescents does not appear to
have been fully evaluated.
• F) The policy towards pregnant women needs to be defined once the theoretical
risks to the fetus are determined.
• G) Because of the proximity of the testicles to skin, this tissue is at risk for
sperm mutagenesis.
• H) Have the effects of the radiation on the cornea and thymus been determined?
But this is the line I will share with my husband:
There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations.
The FDA response, about children and vulnerable populations is this simple line:
NCRP’s dose limitation recommendations for the general public were made with the understanding that the general public includes special populations that are more sensitive to radiation, such as children.
But when I read that the machines may be delivering as much as 10 times as much radiation as originally thought, that blows that single line of defense out of the water. I am not convinced that these machines are safe for anyone to use, much less vulnerable populations.
I feel no better when I read,
Part of the trouble is that there is no ideal device for measuring the radiation dose given by backscatter X-rays, said David Brenner, director of the Columbia University Center for Radiological Research. The machines emit a pencil beam that rapidly moves across and up and down the body, he said.
“We are one of the oldest and biggest radiological research centers in the country, and we find this to be a very hard technical problem,” said Brenner, who was not involved with the letter.
To make it worse, a scientist who says there should be no concerns also notes that there would only 6 cases of cancer out of every million people that use this machine. She figures those 6 cases are not worthy of note. Yet even she is shocked that TSA won't allow the machines to be evaluated by an independent authority.
Basically, it comes down to this:
“There’s no real data on these machines, and in fact, the best guess of the dose is much, much higher than certainly what the public thinks,” said John Sedat, a professor emeritus in biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF and the primary author of the letter.
During my research, I also learned that TSA should be taking public comments about the body scanners:
Federal Appeals Court: TSA Violated Federal Law, Must Take Public Comment on Body Scanners: As a result of a lawsuit brought by EPIC, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the TSA violated federal law when it installed body scanners in airports for primary screening across the country without first soliciting public comment. The Administrative Procedure Act requires federal agencies to provide notice and opportunity for comment when implementing a rule that affects the rights of the public. Writing for a unanimous court, Judge Ginsburg found there was "no justification for having failed to conduct a notice-and-comment rulemaking," and said, "few if any regulatory procedures impose directly and significantly upon so many members of the public." EPIC's brief alleged that airport body scanners are "invasive, unlawful, and ineffective," and that the TSA's deployment of the devices for primary screening violated the U.S. Constitution and several federal statutes.
I visited the TSA homepage so that I could leave my public comment - I found no link for that, though I was surprised to find that they wanted me to know:
TSA Week At A Glance: 9-26-11 Through 10-2-11
2 artfully concealed prohibited items found at checkpoints
20 firearms found at checkpoints
12 passengers were arrested after investigations of suspicious behavior or fraudulent travel documents
I am sure that is to ensure that we know they are doing their job. I wonder how many of those firearms were found without the special body scanners? I also wonder if 'artfully concealed' implies concealed on a person's body or in their carry on luggage? And now I wonder how many of those 12 passengers are like TPao - before I read her diary, I might have assumed they were all just a bunch of trouble makers. Now I wonder if they are all brave citizens making a statement?
I also learned that we are able to file a complaint to TSA about the treatment of TPau - all she has to do is give us express written permission:
Filing on Behalf of a Third Party – If you are filing a complaint on behalf of a third party, you must include a document showing express written permission from the third party to act on his or her behalf and to receive information concerning the experience.
In case you wonder what we should be complaining about, TPau was merely reading the fourth amendment of the Constitution - well within her rights.A letter from John Pistole reminds TSA employees that:
• no one shall be subject to retaliation for opposing unlawful discrimination or for participating in any activity protected by civil rights and civil liberties laws.
So, what do you say TPau? Do I have your written permission to send a complaint to TSA for you? How about other Kossacks? How about other US Citizens? How about any living human being concerned about these damn machines? Can we all send a complaint to TSA about your degrading experience and subsequent arrest? Just give me permission, and I will gladly write a letter in your defense.
3:13 PM PT: From 2laneIA in a comment below comes this excellent link with list of airports using body scanners and a plethora of other great info:
http://www.flyertalk.com/...