Free Republic

If you have gone through airport security at O'Hare, Midway or any other major airport recently, then you know that there is new screening equipment in place and procedures to search travelers. Thousands of pilots who fly jetliners are angry about those changes. There are two issues; two major pilots' unions say the full-body scanners are untested and potentially unsafe because of the radiation they expose travelers to. And the second issue is the new procedure for hand searches by Transportation Security Administration officers at airport checkpoints. Both have produced scathing memos about the TSA from the pilots' unions.

Two months ago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the federal stimulus legislation would pay for the purchase of hundreds of controversial full-body scanners. "Through the Recovery Act, we are able to continue our accelerated deployment of enhanced technology as part of our layered approach to security at airports nationwide," Napolitano said at the time. The number of scanners has roughly doubled since Napolitano's announcement and they are now found in 68 U.S. airports, and the Transportation Security Administration says the controversial devices have proven to be a success. "We have received minimal complaints," a TSA spokeswoman told CNET...

WASHINGTON: A new study has revealed that a full- body computed tomography (CT) scan, could increase the risk of cancer mortality. According to the study, published in the journal Radiology, the increasing popularity of full-body CT screening has raised concerns regarding the radiation-related cancer mortality risk associated with full-body CT radiation exposure. "Our research provides definitive evidence that radiation risk is associated with full-body CT scans. The radiation dose from a full-body CT scan is comparable to the doses received by some of the atomic-bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where there is clear evidence of increased cancer risk," said...