Full Body Scanners in Airports

Another measure TSA took was to add body scanners to security. These scanners can see what a person is carrying underneath their clothes. There have been a few different designs to this machine due to some lawsuits in the past brought up because the TSA agents were making fun of a man’s gentile size or certain passengers would feel embarrassed because someone can see their bodies. Now what the TSA agent sees is an outline of the passenger’s body and whatever is on the body. The body scanner does not show a naked person anymore.

The federal government assured the public that pictures would not be recorded and saved from these machines.  That is not the case.  The scanner that was uses in a Florid courthouse showed the actual “people side-by-side with their X-rayed selves” (Allahpundit).  Why did the government outright lie to the public?  To save their own asses, of course.  This is in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.  The amendment gives people the right to be secure in their persons against unreasonable searches.  I believe the scanning of humans and taking pictures of their faces violates this.   Shockingly, former TSA security director, Mo McGowan, openly stated on fox news that “Nobody likes to have their 4th Amendment violated going through a security line, but the truth of the matter is, we’re going to have to do it” (Left Coast Rebel).  Excuse me? Did this man actually say this in public?  It’s not shocking that he’s no longer the security director.

The current screening method is the body scanner which has been reported on multiple times by the news as it is consider invasive in nature. The screener is able to see the passenger’s nude image, but software updates have eliminated this providing only detection of metallic and nonmetallic threats. The prior method of a metal detector which did not alarm staff if nonmetallic threats existed allowed C-4 explosive (a clay type of explosive) to board the plan. The body scanners are quicker than the former methods of a “pat down”, which every passenger had to endure and were less invasive. This system will be used by the TSA until a better method is discovered, which will provide faster screening, more privacy to passengers and better detection of threats. The cost of this has rising over the years but it was the initial setup of the TSA in 2002 which cost the most since there was not an agency within this realm that completed these duties.

Opponents of body scans argue that the scans put lives at risk. They believe that because radiation can cause harmful diseases such as cancer. J.D Heyes says, “As for the TSA full-body scanners at airports, those could cause cancer”. Heyes is suggesting that if a person travels he or she is putting themselves at risk when it comes to getting a body scan. Additionally body scanners cause radiation just like any other types of scanners such an X-Ray, this is important because the more radiation you passed through your body the more in danger you are of getting cancer. In the article “Doctor warns about health risks of TSA body scanners” by J.D Heyes talks about how X-rays are unhealthy for the body. “In the 1960s, when everybody went to

As with any government organization the TSA has taken much criticism on its security practices.

These criteria vary from flight check for weapons (whatever is considered to be a threat to life) to the passport for determining identification correctly; they are procedures that were developed with the aim of keeping the situation of an imminent threat and sealed to prevent national panic. The baggage policy has seen rapid change such as restrictions limiting any chance of temporary bombs or weapons for display on a plane, derailing any products endanger into the flight. Although this infringement of privacy, the privacy of personal belongings only to the one who is not greater than the chance of a threat if someone has actually taken place. This added to the account that we should not be too dependent on technology and that the probability that the machine is designed to detect any hazardous materials can make mistakes and that carelessness and accessories depending on the technology could lead to serious consequences, all due to the lack of

One current advance that had helped the U.S during the War on Terror was the technical innovations, the backscatter X-ray system, designed to speed up and improve accuracy in security checks. The backscatter X-ray systems are weaker than ones that people may get at the doctor, only scanning the slightly past the surface of the skin. Backscatters are used for full body scanners at airports. The scanners are used to provide security personnel

Furthermore, these full body scanning devices may not even be effective. A team of researchers at UC San Diego, University

Flying now is even more bothersome then ever before with the new procedures after 9/11. These body scanners became nicknamed “Nude-o-scopes” for the intrusive naked pictures they create. These body scanners see through clothes but not through the body itself, leaving the possibility for some to hidemalicious items internally. I am sure there are ways around this system to try and detonate bombs during the flights. Do they really need to go so far as to be looking at pictures of

The effects of radiation can be hazardous to any part of the human body. In this guide I will explain the advantages, and disadvantages of x-ray radiation. I will also discuss the technological advances that we have today then of what we had the past on the human body during radiation exposure. I will explain preventions of exposure and safety precautions that we as dental assistants as well as patients can follow to stay safe.

This security technology has generated claims from passenger and considerable controversy opinions from them. Also in according to the Transportation Security Administration, people are considered that the devices are violate privacy and civil right. It is related a legal ethical issues because this machine for some people are violate their rights. The new technology it is used in 160 airports in the United States in the total approximates are 740 body scanner around the country. A thousand of people are scanning every day, but the issues related with it, could be in a naked imaged of people. The civil right and violated of their privacy are the main discus around this particular security system.

With human exposure to radiation, you have to take into account not just how much radiation you’ve been exposed to, but how much you have been exposed to over time, the type of radiation you were exposed to and the intensity of the radiation you have been exposed to. Start with Alpha particles, alpha particles are low energy radioactive particles that deflect off our clothes, so in this case it shouldn’t hurt is too badly. The big issue with Alpha particles is you can eat the alpha particles which can cause bad things like lung cancer. Beta particles are stronger but smaller than the alpha particles, they’re 8000 times smaller than alpha particles. These particles can go through our skin which can cause problems. The worst radiation is called Gamma rays, these rays come at your skin with extreme high energy and it can hurt

Since the technologies being used only bounce waves of the body surface, this leaves then skin highly exposed to concentrated amounts of radiation. Health side effect studies of full body scanners have been labeled classified and inaccessible to the general public. Four professors from the University of California- San Francisco, whom are well respected cancer, X-ray crystallographers and imaging experts stated in a letter to the Obama administration that, “The low-energy rays do a “Compton scatter” off tissue layers just under the skin, possibly exposing some vital areas and leaving the tissues at risk of mutation. When an X-ray Compton scatters, it doesn’t shift an electron to a higher energy level; instead, it hits the electron hard enough to dislodge it from its atom.” The authors note that this process is “likely breaking bonds,” which could cause mutations in cells and raise the risk of cancer (Johnston). Furthermore, the UCSF researchers write in their letter, “older passengers are more susceptible to mutagenic effects of X-rays, and “the risk of

There are numerous conflicting views on the methods the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to examine a passenger who is going to board a plane. Although the methods use seem necessary for one's safety at airports, passengers feel that full body scans and pat-downs are a violation of their Fourth Amendment and the Privacy Act as Hunter, M.(2010) stated as one of the lawsuits made by a public interest research group. The TSA being able to search you without

“‘We are frequently reminded that our enemy is creative and willing to go to great lengths to evade detection,’ the director of the TSA, Kosketz said. ‘TSA utilizes the latest intelligence to inform the deployment of new technology and procedures, like the pat-down, in order to stay ahead of evolving threats’” (“Mad as Hell”).