Naked Body Scanning & Carcinogenic Radiation. Potentially Devastating Health Effects
author: jailbush
|
When I heard of the Christmas Underwear Bomber I knew this was business as usual. My first thought was, "who has the contracts to make the machines?" Surprise, a client of Chertoff's the head of homeland "security". Of course the underwear was chosen as the G spot so no one would complain about the invasion of privacy with full body scanning. Read on and stop flying if you can or demand a pat down rather than a scan.
|
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is requesting an additional 500 body scanners under new federal surveillance initiatives budgeted for FY 2011. EPIC notes: "In 2009, the TSA announced that Whole Body Imaging would replace metal detectors at airport security check points. This is a marked departure from the earlier promises by the agency that the technology would only be used for secondary screening of air travel passengers."7
Once all of the older style metal detector portals are removed--probably by the end of 2011--those wishing to fly will have no choice but to undergo naked-body scanning.
NAKED-BODY SCANNING=CARCINOGENIC RADIATION
There are two types of "strip off" machines which have been, or will soon be installed at airport gauntlets:
o The backscatter scanners, used to create ghost-like images of the human body under clothing, emit ionizing x-radiation to penetrate human flesh at least a quarter inch deep. Airport procedure requires at least two scans to cover front and back, with each scan lasting up to 8 seconds. Additional lateral scans can also be administered.
Ionizing x-radiation is a proven carcinogen. It breaks molecular bonds and damages DNA. Strip scanners use higher ionizing energy than medical x-rays.8
o The millimeter scanners, used to create a three-dimensional holographic image of the body under clothing, bombard human flesh with ultra short radio frequency waves which lie on the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and x-rays.
Millimeter waves, propagated in the very high gigahertz range, are documented to damage DNA.9 This elevates millimeter waves to carcinogen status.
Also looming on the horizon are powerful transmission system scanners which use potent ionizing x-ray beams to deeply examine the internal structures of the body for detection of swallowed objects or those hidden in body cavities. Little information is currently available on the new foot scanners soon coming to airports.
EPIC has obtained TSA documents revealing that full-body airport scanning machines have both image storage and image transfer capabilities.10 Photoshop computer software is said to allow scan images to be inverted from negatives to actual naked body photos.11 DHS assurances that the scans will not be saved or compromised are as reliable as its assurances that the technologically demanding feats of 9-11 were perpetrated by cavemen with box cutters.
WHY AIRPORT RADIATION IS SO DANGEROUS
Americans, as a group, are not immensely healthy these days. They are cancer-ridden, Alzheimer's-afflicted, prone to high rates of heart disease and diabetes, chronically fatigued, stunned by carcinogenic wireless devices and drubbed by continuous exposure to MRIs, CAT scans, dental panograms, Wi-Fi and cell tower microwaves. Additional doses of airport ionizing and millimeter radiation will only add to public health deterioration.
Medical experts agree that cancers begin with damaged DNA. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) explains:
"When cells become old or damaged, they die and are replaced with new cells. However, sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. The genetic material of a cell (DNA) can become damaged or changed, producing mutations that affect normal cell growth or division. When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells form when the body does not need them. The extra cells may form a mass of tissue called a tumor."12
Even a single DNA mutation can lay the groundwork for development of any of over 200 types of tumors and blood cancers. This means that full-body scanning, administered by non-medical airport personnel, is a treacherous assault against the public health. The American Cancer Society (ACS) confirms, "Ionizing radiation has been shown to induce (cause) cancer in many different species of animals and in almost all parts of the body. It is one of the few scientifically proven carcinogens... ."13
Some compare airport scanning radiation to background radiation from the sun, or from high altitude flying. But Dr. John Gofman, MD, Professor Emeritus of molecular and cell biology who gained his expertise as biomedical director of Livermore Labs under the Atomic Energy Commission, has stated, "Usually, when exposure to x-rays is compared with 'a day in the sun' or 'a day at the beach,' the mistaken assumption is that ultra violet light from the sun is comparable to the penetrating photons of x-rays and gamma rays. The assumption is mistaken. Because ultraviolet light does not penetrate past the skin, it does not cause cancer of internal organs... ."14
Federal officials minimize airport scan exposure by insisting that the radiation is "low dose." But in 2005, an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences rejected arguments that low dose radiation is safe. The panel noted that radiation damage is cumulative, and it made these important assertions:
o Studies show even very low doses of ionizing radiation pose a risk of cancer over a person's lifetime.
o It is unlikely that there is a threshold of radiation exposure below which cancers are not induced.15
Female travelers subjected to airport scanning are at special risk. Monumental medical studies completed by Dr. Gofman, indicate that medical x-radiation is an overlooked co-factor in the initiation of breast cancer.16 Why must millions of non-violent girls and women be subjected to increased breast cancer risk from airport backscatter scanners in order to "avert terrorism"? Is it not perverse satisfaction to America's enemies that HDS and TSA are adding fuel to the fire of our raging breast cancer epidemic?
Considering the long-established fact that any amount of ionizing radiation is dangerous to fetuses and children, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety in Europe now advises that pregnant women and children should NOT be exposed to backscatter x-ray security scanners at all.17 This committee includes experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Energy Agency World Health Organization and the European Commission.
Using ACS's 2009 statistics for both malignant tumors and skin cancers, we calculate that every day another 6500 Americans receive a new cancer diagnosis. The second leading cause of death for American kids is cancer. What kind of government would subject children to frivolous ionizing x-ray radiation in the name of "security?" The same gang that obliterated the World Trade Center before trapped and injured people could be rescued.
KILLER TECHNOLOGY BY THE MILLIMETER
Millimeter radiation is called terahertz (THz) or T-waves. Man-made T-waves are propagated at an energy of billions of hertz. While technical definitions of the terahertz frequency band vary, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) defines millimeter radiation as waves which oscillate at 110 to 300 billion hertz.
DHS claims that millimeter energy used by airport scanners is thousands of times less powerful a cell phone transmission. But it is certainly powerful enough to penetrate clothing and produce an x-ray-like image. Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory reported in 2009 that even a tiny resonant force exerted by T-waves can "unzip double-stranded DNA" creating bubbles of damage. The researchers postulate that such damage can significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication.18
European universities conducting research on terahertz radiation between 2001 and 2004, concluded that terahertz radiation may cause molecular damage by mechanism of "resonant absorption."19
Chinese research has demonstrated that terahertz frequencies at various non-thermal power densities produce "cumulative effects" on many biological systems, including the brain. Research presented at an international radiation conference in 2004 noted that millimeter radiation especially causes "a decrease in learning capacity and memory."20
Japanese medical researchers reported in 2009 that millimeter wave exposure can cause "acute ocular injuries." Their study states: "These findings indicated that three types of millimeter wave antennas can cause thermal injuries of varying types and levels. The thermal effects induced by millimeter waves can apparently penetrate below the surface of the eye."21 Even if airport millimeter scanner waves inflict non-thermal (non-tissue heating) power densities, we know that non-thermal microwaves, which are far less energetic than millimeter waves, can cause the formation of non-operable cataracts in the human eye.22
T-waves should not be forced upon any human who wishes to reproduce healthy children. Faulty DNA replication and faulty gene expression have everything to do with miscarriages and birth defects. But how many American women who don't yet know they are pregnant will be T-waved at US airports? How many ova cells in female ovaries will be subjected to terahertz DNA-unzipping before adequate medical research finally forbids this travesty?
SOMETHING'S ROTTEN AT DHS
Airport full-body scanning issue is an oxymoron. How do you make airline passengers "safe" by destroying their cellular mechanisms and initiating genetic damage, cancer and other degenerative conditions? If nuked-to-naked scanning really has to do with air safety, why have at least 65,000 US flights over the last six years been allowed to take off with unresolved safety problems,23 putting millions of air passengers at risk?
TSA's radiation assault has been enervated by the so-called underwear bomber, a 23-year-old Nigerian Muslim named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. A passenger on Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam, Abdulmutallab packed his undies with explosive chemicals, then set himself on fire shortly before the plane landed in Detroit on Christmas day, 2009.
Abdulmatullab was able to execute this stunt, even though his father, a former Nigerian official, had earlier warned U.S. authorities about his son's extremist activities.24
o Why did a "sharp dressed" man escorting Abdulmutallab convince Amsterdam security officials to allow Mr. A. to board flight 253 without a valid passport, as witnessed by other passengers?25
o Since the US National Counter Terrorism Center had Abdulmutallab on its Terror Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) roster, why did HDS-- so keen to probe granny's crannies--allow him keep a valid visa for the USA?
o If HDS wanted to "watch" Abdulmatullab in order to gain information on his networks, as the U.S. State Department is now insisting,26 why did not our over-zealous security apparatus assign a sky marshal to his aircraft?
The Abdulmatullab case brings to mind how 9-11 "terrorist" agents were allowed to do their "thing" over a span of several hours with virtually no effective U.S. military response until massive destruction of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon building was fait accompli. Flight 253 had to be another yet fake terrorist demonstration.
In 2003, TSA announced intention to use the technology and by 2007, it was running pilot programs to test passenger psychological reactions. In 2008, TSA launched its CastScope pilot program, soliciting volunteers with casts, prosthetic devices and braces to yield up their encumbered parts to experimental backscatter x-ray investigation. Beginning in 2009, radiation scanners have been presented as primary surveillance at airports in San Francisco, Miami, Albuquerque, Tulsa, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. Reports from travelers reveal that many were not made aware that they could request a pat down, rather than risk radiation exposure.
While the older style baggage scanning and metal detection portals for passengers have proven effective in preventing the smuggling of metal weapons aboard aircraft, security officials argue that the portals do not detect low-density materials used for bombs. But the British government suggests that naked-body scanners have also been found to be unreliable in detecting plastics, chemicals and liquids like those the underwear bomber had stuffed in his briefs. British expert Ben Wallace, an MP involved with development of new scanning technology, has stated that full body scanners were "unlikely to have detected the Christmas Day Bomb."30
NCRP AND THE PROCESS OF TOTALITARIAN THOUGHT
For lubrication of what will certainly in the near future become mandatory strip searching using carcinogenic technology, a lengthy report was prepared by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP).31 Authors of the report include agents of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. The ruminations of this monstrous document place it in the category of Dr. Mengele's Nazi concentration camp experiments.
Using NCRP's outdated and dangerous exposure calculations, the report concludes that zapping an individual annually with 2500 ionizing security backscatter scans (at 0.1 microsievert per scan) lie within officially acceptable parameters. The committee's recommendation for fetus exposure to ionizing security scans are scandalous:
o a monthly equivalent dose of fifty ionizing scans a month for the embryo or fetus of radiation workers (those who administer airport security, for example)
o Half that many security scans per month for fetuses of the general public.
The NCRP report notes that the FDA had requested consideration of "informed consent" for airport scanning. But the NCRP committee found that "the effective doses that would be received from the scanning devices considered in this report are at a level at which the 'consent' aspect of informed consent would not be indicated." Of course, the "consent aspect" was not "indicated" for those liquidated by Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler and the 9-11 perpetrators, either.
The NRCP report is a perfect illustration of what political commentator Henry Giroux calls "new modes of authoritarian policy" which can manifest in degrees "to create conditions for a distinctly undemocratic and increasingly cruel and oppressive social order."32 What is more cruel, oppressive and Nazi-like than blackmailing travelers with non-consensual airport radiation which has documented potential to inflict illness and even premature death?
The NCRP report discloses: "... .Technologies employing ionizing radiation to image illicit materials will continue to evolve... ..Smaller versions of cargo scanners using radionuclides that emit gamma rays are being developed for security screening of individuals. An idea that has been considered that involves scanning vehicles and their occupants at customs checkpoints or even at the approach of a vulnerable bridge or tunnel. Covert systems capable of scanning a vehicle traveling at five to 30 mph are possible... .Systems may be disguised within decorative portals for the covert screening of individuals passing through the portals... ."33
　
Footnotes:
7. EPIC-Electronic Privacy Information Center, "Whole Body Imaging Technology and Body Scanners ("Backscatter" X-Ray and Millimeter Wave Screening," pp. 2-5 www.epic.org.
8. Ibid.
9. "How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA," Technology Review,
10-30-09, www.technologyreview.com
10. EPIC-Electronic Privacy Information Center, "Whole Body Imaging Technology and Body Scanners ("Backscatter" X-Ray and Millimeter Wave Screening," p. 3 www.epic.org.
11. "The Health Risks of Naked Body Scanners," Bob Livingston, 1-25-10.
12. "What is Cancer?," The National Cancer Institute, www.cancer.gov
13. "Radiation Exposure and Cancer," The American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org
14. "X-ray Imaging: The Fallacy of the 'Day in the Sun' Comparison," Dr. John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., and Egan O'Connor, The X-rays and Health Project, 2-28-00.
15. "Panel Affirms Radiation Link to Cancer," Associated Press, 06-29-05.
16. Radiation from Medical Procedures in the Pathogenesis of Cancer and Ischemic Heart Disease: Dose-Response Studies with Physicians per 100,000 Population, Dr. John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., 1999.
17. "Airport Body Scanning Raises Radiation Exposure Committee Says," J. Tirone, 02-05-10, www.bloomberg.com
18. "How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA," Technology Review, 10-30-09, www.technologyreview.com
19. Terahertz Bridge: Terahertz Radiation in Biological Research, Investigation on Diagnostics and Study on Potential Genotoxic Effects, EU Commission Programme, "Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources" Key Action 4, 2004.
20."Mechanism of Non-Thermally (sic) Biological Effect of Millimeterwaves of its Properties," Pang Xio-feng et al., Institute of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; also "Effects of Electromagnetic Radiation on Animals: Review of Chinese Papers" G. Guozhen et al., Radiation Medicine Department, the Fourth Military Medical University.
21. "Acute Ocular Injuries Caused by 60-GHz Milllimeter Wave Exposure," M. Kojima et al., Division of Vision Research for Environmental Health, Kanazawa Medical University, 2009 Sep;97(3) 212-8.
22. The Microwave Debate, Nicholas Staneck, 1984, p. 162. As shown by researcher Dr. Milton Zaret, non-thermal microwave radiation cataracts present as cataract degradation of the back surface of the eye lens from a "delayed radiational effect."
23. "Planes with Maintenance Problems Have Flown Anyway," USA Today 02-04-10.
24. "US no-fly List Criticized After Attempted Plane Bombing," Los Angeles Times, 12-31-09.
25. "The Truth about Flight 253 Has Been Revealed," Kurt Haskell, 01-29-09, haskellfamily.blogspot.com. Kurt Haskell and his wife Lori were among passengers on flight 253 who witnessed the '"sharp dressed man" facilitating Abdulmatullab's boarding of Flight 253 without a valid passport.
26. "Terror Suspect Kept Visa to Avoid Tipping Off Larger Investigation," Detroit News, 01-27-10.
27. "US no-fly List Criticized After Attempted Plane Bombing," Los Angeles Times, 12-31-09.
28. "The Airport Scanner Scam," J. Ridgeway, Mother Jones, 01-04-10.
29. New Technology to Boost Airport Security, ABC News.com, 09-14-01.
30. "Are Airport Scanners Just a Scam?" J. Merrick, The Independent, UK, 01-03-10.
31. Presidential Report on Radiation Protection Advice: Screening of Humans for Security Purposes, Using Ionizing Radiation Scanning Systems, A Report Prepared by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, Bethesda, Maryland, 11-26-02.
32. "Democracy and the Threat of Authoritarianism: Politics Beyond Barack Obama," Dr. Henry Giroux, Truthout.com, 02-15-10.
33. Presidential Report on Radiation Protection Advice: Screening of Humans for Security Purposes, op cit.
|
homepage: http://www.wirelesswatchblog.com
contribute to this article
add comment to discussion
|
