[964] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] [Updated] TSA Abuses, Dental X-Rays,
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Tue Nov 23 13:55:20 2010
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:37:37 -0800
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TSA Abuses, Dental X-Rays, Children -- and How to Lie About Radiation
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000784.html
Greetings. Over on my PRIVACY Forum lately, I've been noting and
discussing the barrage of nightmare revelations regarding
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) abuses of airline
passengers, both via their recently deployed body scanning x-ray
units, and the literally obscene new "pat-down" procedures. I won't
repeat those items here -- you've probably heard most of them by now,
including stories of how passengers attempting to videotape these
abuses have been detained and threatened with arrest, been ordered to
delete their recordings -- and so on.
I've discussed the issues associated with body scanners several times
before in this blog, e.g. "Fun With Body Scanner Images -- and Cutting
Through the Body Scanner Bull" ( http://bit.ly/5JbxbI ). When I first
began reporting on this technology years ago, I actually received
email from persons who didn't believe that such systems either existed
or that they'd ever actually be widely deployed.
But while trying to get to sleep last night, thinking about this
horrendous TSA mess along its various vectors -- everything from the
Bush DHS head who pushed body scanners and then went to work for the
manufacturer, to the useless TSA groping, to the arguments about
radiation levels -- I suddenly thought about a rather horrifying
article in today's New York Times that I read last night: "The
Radiation Boom": "Radiation Worries for Children in Dentists' Chairs"
( http://bit.ly/fUoMLt ).
The upshot of the article is that dental x-ray levels are now becoming
a concern -- not only because so many dentists still use old, slow
x-ray films despite faster films being available, but due to the rapid
deployment of heavily promoted (and very expensive) "cone-beam CT
scanner" x-ray devices being used both by dentists (and especially
orthodontists) that result in *far* higher radiation exposures.
(This device, as far as I know, is completely distinct from
"single-shot" digital dental x-rays, which I believe result in far
less radiation exposure than either film type dental x-ray.)
This topic should be of concern to everyone -- you should read the
article. It's of special note if you have children, since they are
particularly sensitive to radiation.
How does this all relate to the current TSA mess? It occurred to me
that many of the claims regarding the purported safety of the x-ray
body scanners compare the dosage to dental x-rays in one way or
another. And yet it's clear that there's no real telling what the
dosage from "a dental x-ray" per se really is in any generic sense. In
fact, there are claims (you'll see in that article) that a
manufacturer is grossly understating (by hundreds of times) the levels
associated with their equipment -- and they apparently refused to
discuss the matter with the Times.
So what do generic comparisons with dental x-ray levels really mean?
Nothing. Nada. They're useless.
And this is all a symptom of the lax regulation of radiation related
equipment in this country. You've probably heard the recent stories
about massive radiation overdoses from both CT scans and radiation
treatments at major U.S. hospitals, both of a sort that one would
assume properly designed equipment would have made utterly impossible.
Even when patients suffered burns and lost hair, it took ages for
anyone to make the connection -- at least one patient suffered a
horrible death as a result -- as these errors in some cases continued
for months or years undetected.
This is in *medical* settings. Relatively clean environments,
equipment operated by trained professionals of one degree or another.
The companies that manufacture such equipment have everyone by the
proverbial balls -- including the government which seems to have a
historically duplicitous attitude toward such systems -- just think of
all the blatant "safety" lies told to the public in the name of
national security related to nuclear weapons tests and
manufacturing-related radiation contaminations of people and property
historically.
And to make matters worse, typically it's impossible to prove whether
any given radiation exposure directly related to cancers down the
line. It can take years or decades for these to develop, and nobody
is really keeping track of radiation dosage levels for anyone who
isn't a medical or nuclear worker -- and even for them it's only
tracked to some degree within their work environments.
Put this all together, and think about all of those backscatter x-ray
units in airport terminals, being operated as if they were popcorn
machines by -- frankly -- unskilled personnel.
TSA is begging people not to refuse to go through the x-ray units.
Their argument lately appears to be more about not disrupting air
travel than about catching terrorists (TSA now apparently considers
the information about whether their x-ray units and groping procedures
have ever actually stopped a terrorist to be a state secret!)
Here's my bottom line opinion on all this. You may not like it.
Given the current state of information, research, and "validation," if
you voluntarily go through those x-ray backscatter units, you are
approximating the behavior of a fool. It's your choice, of course.
But if you allow your young children to go through the units, you are,
I believe, worse than a fool.
Sorry to be so direct about this. I'm sure this will upset some
people -- perhaps some of my long-time readers. But you know that I
always try to shoot straight regarding all of the matters that I
address in these missives.
Ethically, I couldn't discuss this issue any less strongly.
Take care, all.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org
Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance):
http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz
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