Posted on 11/22/2010 8:26:26 PM PST by Greysard
This open letter from a group of scientists [...] is entirely to the point, in my view as a radiation transport physicist who is intimately familiar with the processes by which x-rays deposit energy in tissue. [...]
As it stands, these machines are a pure act of state-sponsored violence against anyone who is mislead into one. I would certainly not allow myself to be scanned by one of these machines, nor allow one of my minor children to be scanned by one. [...]
Based on a back of the envelope calculation with a 50 KVp Bremsstrahlung spectrum and the standard mass absorption coefficients for soft tissue, X-ray backscatter machines will, if widely deployed, almost certainly kill far more people than the terrorists they are supposed to protect us from.
(Excerpt) Read more at tjradcliffe.com ...
See the complete article for details. He explains exactly what is going on with that mythical "average dose." In my own words, to summarize, it works like this:
You take a welder's blowtorch, light it and put it against your stomach for five seconds. Then you measure the temperature increase of your entire body, find it to be just 0.05° and declare the blowtorch perfectly safe!
a pure act of state-sponsored violence against anyone who is mislead into one.
The “scientists” I have met weren’t big on spelling, math was more their thing.
I saw on the news this evening the TSA won’t allow independent testing of these x-ray peep machines for safety and radiation output.
Notice how there is no shielding for workers and passengers in the area of these devices?
Based on a back of the envelope calculation with a 50 KVp Bremsstrahlung spectrum and the standard mass absorption coefficients for soft tissue, X-ray backscatter machines will, if widely deployed, almost certainly kill far more people than the terrorists they are supposed to protect us from.
I'd bet that in a few years there will be a lot of ill formed babies born. This will fit perfectly with the Death paneled obamacare.
Thank you. You answered my question.
I think I just may mention this in passing to TSA employees...
Man-oh-man, they couldn’t pay me enough to stand next to an unshielded x-ray machine all day long!
Back in 1999 I underwent treatment for maxiofacial cancer which involved a lifetime dose of radiation to my head. I have no idea what the risks are from these machines, but the phrase “lifetime dose” tells me I am not supposed to get any more x-ray radiation from the neck up for the rest of my life.
I hope someone is preparing to challenge all of this in Court and get an emergency stay on all of these procedures until a Court can rule on their Constitutionality.
If I am asked to go through the scanner, I will loudly say “does this machine emit radiation? Are you (the operator)a licensed x-ray technician? doctor?” Who is maintaining/monitoring these machines to make sure they are safe?” No? then how DARE you tell me to be ‘scanned’!
good idea
Yea when TSA agents start growing feet out of their heads and having babies with two heads they’ll probably get the message that x-rays aren’t good for you. I wonder if they are monitored for x-ray dossage and are required to wear a film badge. It would be interesting to see their monthly readings.
” I’d bet that in a few years there will be a lot of ill formed babies born. This will fit perfectly with the Death paneled obamacare. “ and in their own terms, babies not worth saving.
This is a very valuable article. It spotlights something I hadn’t noticed: the government has been speaking in terms of “average dose” from the scanners.
Now, I’m a scientist, and I used to TA for the statistics courses in grad school, and I’m here to tell you that politicians and bureaucrats just LOVE the statistic known as the average, because it’s so handy for demagoguing an issue. You can select your data-set to say whatever you want to say. Consider the following sequence of numbers:
1, 1, 1, 10, 1.
The “average” is nearly 3. But how representative of the set is that? If you were to pick a number most typical or representative of the set, I doubt you’d pick anything close to 3. The singular value of 10 is clearly some sort of fluke. But the tendency of the average to be pulled in one direction or another by fluke data-points is one of its most useful features for those who wish to obscure the real meaning of data.
Keep that in mind when reading this guy’s blog post.
Those sons of bitches.
My dentist tells me that unless there’s some good reason, we shouldn’t take X-rays more than one a year. Now these clowns want to blast people with radiation from head to foot.
What is frightening here is they are making no efforts to reassure anyone the radiation levels are safe. They won’t release information or allow independent tests.
Margaret Sanger and the rest of the population control nuts must be happy. The elitists fly around in private planes with no body scans for them, while the ignorant masses are poisoned with radiation and hopefully die younger.
Great way to solve SS crisis.
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