Tea at Trianon: The Whole-Body Scanners

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

The Whole-Body Scanners

Are they safe?

In the recent weeks TSA started to aggressively steer people towards the whole-body scanners, which are capable of producing "naked" images of people. This policy was introduced without much public debate, raising numerous concerns about privacy, legality, civil rights, etc. In this article we’ll concentrate on safety of these screening devices.

TSA and a number of officials from FDA have issued assurances that these scanners are safe, claiming that a number of experts have reviewed the radiation exposure data and agrees that the doses of radiation travelers get from being scanned are well within exposure limits established as safe. However, the technical specifications, details of operation and construction, and other data necessary for an independent review of safety of these devices are not published.

What is known is that there are two different types of scanners – one uses scattering of "soft" X-rays, and another uses the terahertz (millimeter) microwaves to form an image. We will discuss the X-ray scanners first.

The general public is well aware of danger of exposure to X-rays; this danger is being forcefully underlined by the usual safety procedures of clinical radiologists donning lead vests and retreating before turning the X-ray machines on. Unlike high-intensity radiation, low-intensity X-rays do not kill or burn cells outright, but the energetic photons can and do damage DNA in the cells. Most DNA damage is not critical, and is repaired by the cells; however some damage remains unrepaired – crippling cellular mechanisms, or disabling them completely when enough damage is accumulated. One of these mechanisms, called apoptosis, or programmed cellular death, prevents cells in our bodies from multiplying uncontrollably. Once this mechanism is disabled, the cell becomes cancerous. (Radiation exposure was also recently found to increase mortality from cardiovascular diseases).