UCSF Professor: “Society Will Pay a Huge Price in Cancer” Because of DHS Full Vehicle X-Ray Machines
January 16th, 2012Via: Cnet:
Internal Homeland Security documents describing specifications for border-crossing scanners, which emit gamma or X-ray radiation to probe vehicles and their occupants, are raising new health and privacy concerns, CNET has learned.
Even though a public outcry has prompted Homeland Security to move away from adding X-ray machines to airports–it purchased 300 body scanners last year that used alternative technology instead–it appears to be embracing them at U.S.-Mexico land border crossings as an efficient way to detect drugs, currency, and explosives.
The Z Portal scanner in use at the San Ysidro, Calif. border crossing uses high energy X-ray radiation to probe the interior of vehicles. Homeland Security says it's safe for humans, but some biophysicists disagree.
The Z Portal scanner in use at the San Ysidro, Calif., border crossing uses high energy X-ray radiation to probe the interior of vehicles. Homeland Security says it’s safe for humans, but some biophysicists disagree.
A 63-page set of specifications (PDF), heavily redacted, obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center through the Freedom of Information Act, says the scanners must “be based on X-Ray or gamma technology,” which use potentially dangerous ionizing radiation at high energies, and “shall be capable of scanning cars, SUVs, motorcycles and busses.”
“Society will pay a huge price in cancer because of this,” John Sedat, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco, told CNET. Sedat has raised concerns about the health risks of X-ray scanners, and the European Commission in November prohibited their use in European airports.
The specifications do not say how Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, will notify people crossing the border about the radiation emitted by the devices, how frequently the devices will be tested to ensure they’re operating properly, or whether travelers will be presented with a choice of declining the scan, which is an option at airport body scanners that use X-rays.
Looks like the only safe countries to live in are the ones that are NOT fighting the War On Terror; if there are any such countries.
The professor is quite correct. The problem is that the US Government just doesn’t care. If they don’t care about the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent children, why on earth would they care about this?
oh they care, they wouldnt go to these lengths if they didnt care. its just that they have different values and priorities, a key to understanding their behavior and choices. its not like these things are happening for no reason, there are reasons. perhaps not good reasons from my or your perspective, but the us government, and not the people that are a part of it, cares very, very much about some things.
You need to climb on out of that memetic box you’re stuck in Commenter #1…
a) “safety” in the context you are using it is an Hegelian wedge.
b) “countries” are econo-political constructs with social overtones.
c) the “War On Terror” is an industrialist fairy tale concocted by PR flacks sold to the mass mind.
In a nutshell, if your “country” isn’t fighting the “War On Terror”, it is by the very nature of the G.W.O.T. “safety” mythology supporting terror.
Which means the “war” is coming to you.
Western media of the mainstream variety in all it’s diverse forms and formats is simply a vast memetic maze used to codify, justify and terrify.
Words are *magical* things.