Wow….there’s a shock. X-rays are bad for you. Who could have guessed that?
US scientists warned Friday that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners that are being used to screen passengers and airline crews at airports around the country may be unsafe.
“They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays,” Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine, told AFP.
“No exposure to X-ray is considered beneficial. We know X-rays are hazardous but we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly that they will risk their lives in this manner,” he said.
The possible health dangers posed by the scanners add to passengers and airline crews’ concerns about the devices, which have been dubbed “naked” scanners because of the graphic image they give of a person’s body, genitalia and all.
A regional airline pilot last month refused to go through one of the scanners, calling it an “assault on my person” and a violation of his right to privacy.
REST OF ARTICLE.
You know how when you go to the dentist they always ask if you may be pregnant before xraying? ( not men) I always assumed it was the tiniest smidge of a chance that it might cause a problem. Anyway there is a neighbor boy, the age of my boy,grew up with my boy who is very much on his death bed of brain cancer. Five or so years ago he nearly died and they said they got it all and eveyrone was so relieved. He’s had continued checkups that showed nothing. Then this past summer they found a new and huge tumor that is growing very fast and will almost certainly take him. The doctor said it is UNRELATED to the tumor he had 5 years ago and that this is all caused by the MANY XRAYS he has had to be sure the previous tumor has stayed gone. If I were his parent, my anger would be UNCONTAINABLE. That he beat it and now THEY gave him somethign worse being sure the first was gone. SO yes xrays cause cancer
Sage Reply:
November 16th, 2010 at 1:28 am
I know how they downplay the danger of x-rays. They do it about mammograms as well.
A family member told me today that michael chertoff of homeland security owns a major amount of stock in the xray machine company. SHOCKER !!!!!!!!!
This sucks because my daughter was going to go to europe this summer and I am reconsidering and hoping something changes before then.
I wonder also if the airlines can SUE the federal government when they lose a LOT of their already diminished business.
Sage Reply:
November 16th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Reminds me of Rumsfield owning stock in Tamiflu.
They gotta think we’re idiots and by the numbers, most of us are.