mynameis
12-10-2007, 08:37 PM
New scanner may replace metal detectors
EILEEN SULLIVAN
Associated Press
Thursday, October 11, 2007
WASHINGTON - The federal government will begin testing a body-scanning machine that could eventually be used instead of the metal detectors passengers walk through at airports.
Tests were scheduled to begin Thursday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with passengers pulled out of the security line for secondary screening. Passengers may request the full-body scan — which blurs faces so the person being screened cannot be recognized — instead of the traditional pat-down used across the country. The new machine uses radio waves to detect foreign objects.
Since February, the Phoenix airport has been testing a similar machine that uses so-called backscatter radiation to scan the entire body. The backscatter uses a narrow, low-intensity x-ray beam that's scans the entire body at a high speed. The amount of radiation used during this scan is equal to 15 minutes of exposure to natural background radiation such as the sun's rays.
Officials are trying to determine if the body-scan machines are a more effective search tool than a pat-down. Both types of machines check for explosives, metal, plastic and liquids — anything hidden on the body, said Mike Golden, the Transportation Security Administration's chief technology officer.
The new type of device being tested, called a "millimeter wave" machine, doesn't use radiation, Golden said Wednesday during a demonstration for reporters at the agency's headquarters in Arlington, Va. Instead, it uses electromagnetic waves to create an image based on energy reflected from the body.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_re_us/airport_body_scan
Fifteen minutes of exposure, times twice a day, plus normal daily dose of radiation, equals about three times the normal exposure for about a forty-five minutes of exposure to radiation daily on average.
It takes normal exposure seven years to develop.
Skin Cancer
If exposure to sunlight continues for several years, the damaged skin has an increased chance of developing one of the forms of skin cancer. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation increases the risk of developing these cancers (although it may not be the only cause of the disease). While the exact relationship is not 100% defined, it appears that intermittent (occasional) exposure and exposure during childhood and adolescence are likely important predictors for basal cell carcinoma, and cutaneous malignant melanoma. High levels of chronic exposure, such as working outdoors, is more often associated with squamous cell tumours.
The following facts also link sunlight exposure to skin cancer:
* Most skin cancer occurs in areas of skin most heavily exposed to sunlight (ears, forehead, arms, etc).
* Skin cancer among people who are sensitive to sunlight is more common in regions with stronger sunlight.
* People with genetic diseases that make them more sensitive to sunlight have a greater chance of developing skin cancer.
* Studies show that ultraviolet radiation similar to sunlight causes skin cancer in animals.
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/skin_cancer.html
So on average two or three doses of normal radiation a day, times three hundred and sixty-five days, times seven years, divided by seven years is equal to about twenty-one years before symptoms may show up.
EILEEN SULLIVAN
Associated Press
Thursday, October 11, 2007
WASHINGTON - The federal government will begin testing a body-scanning machine that could eventually be used instead of the metal detectors passengers walk through at airports.
Tests were scheduled to begin Thursday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with passengers pulled out of the security line for secondary screening. Passengers may request the full-body scan — which blurs faces so the person being screened cannot be recognized — instead of the traditional pat-down used across the country. The new machine uses radio waves to detect foreign objects.
Since February, the Phoenix airport has been testing a similar machine that uses so-called backscatter radiation to scan the entire body. The backscatter uses a narrow, low-intensity x-ray beam that's scans the entire body at a high speed. The amount of radiation used during this scan is equal to 15 minutes of exposure to natural background radiation such as the sun's rays.
Officials are trying to determine if the body-scan machines are a more effective search tool than a pat-down. Both types of machines check for explosives, metal, plastic and liquids — anything hidden on the body, said Mike Golden, the Transportation Security Administration's chief technology officer.
The new type of device being tested, called a "millimeter wave" machine, doesn't use radiation, Golden said Wednesday during a demonstration for reporters at the agency's headquarters in Arlington, Va. Instead, it uses electromagnetic waves to create an image based on energy reflected from the body.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_re_us/airport_body_scan
Fifteen minutes of exposure, times twice a day, plus normal daily dose of radiation, equals about three times the normal exposure for about a forty-five minutes of exposure to radiation daily on average.
It takes normal exposure seven years to develop.
Skin Cancer
If exposure to sunlight continues for several years, the damaged skin has an increased chance of developing one of the forms of skin cancer. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation increases the risk of developing these cancers (although it may not be the only cause of the disease). While the exact relationship is not 100% defined, it appears that intermittent (occasional) exposure and exposure during childhood and adolescence are likely important predictors for basal cell carcinoma, and cutaneous malignant melanoma. High levels of chronic exposure, such as working outdoors, is more often associated with squamous cell tumours.
The following facts also link sunlight exposure to skin cancer:
* Most skin cancer occurs in areas of skin most heavily exposed to sunlight (ears, forehead, arms, etc).
* Skin cancer among people who are sensitive to sunlight is more common in regions with stronger sunlight.
* People with genetic diseases that make them more sensitive to sunlight have a greater chance of developing skin cancer.
* Studies show that ultraviolet radiation similar to sunlight causes skin cancer in animals.
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/skin_cancer.html
So on average two or three doses of normal radiation a day, times three hundred and sixty-five days, times seven years, divided by seven years is equal to about twenty-one years before symptoms may show up.