Cancer Clusters Among TSA Workers Near Body Scanners
TSA: Tremendously Stupid Assholes
Straight from the Electronic Privacy Information Center: “On June 24, 2011, EPIC released documents obtained from DHS as a result of EPIC’s lawsuit.
The disclosed documents include agency emails, radiation studies, memoranda of agreement concerning radiation testing programs, and results of some radiation tests.
The documents raise new questions concerning the radiation risks posed by the TSA full body scanner program. The records demonstrate:
- TSA employees have identified cancer clusters allegedly linked to radiation exposure while operating body scanners and other screening technology. However, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters – safety devices that would warn of radiation exposure.
- The DHS has publicly mischaracterized the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stating that NIST “affirmed the safety” of full body scanners. NIST stated that the Institute did not, in fact, test full body scanners for safety, and that the Institute does not do product testing.
- A Johns Hopkins University study revealed that radiation zones around body scanners could exceed the “General Public Dose Limit.”
- A NIST study warns airport screeners to avoid standing next to full body scanners.”
As we now know, due to secret GAO testing, the naked body scanner machines just don’t work [as discussed on the No Agenda Show #288]: Naked body scanners badly fail secret GAO testing
