TSA refuses to fulfill promise to conduct independent safety investigation of naked body scanners

Saturday, November 19, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: naked body scanners, safety review, health news

(NaturalNews) Not even a month after promising to conduct a legitimate, independent study on the safety of the illegal naked body scanners used in airports across the US, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator John Pistole is now saying that such a measure is unnecessary, and that it may not happen after all.

ProPublica reports that, despite myriad evidence that the privacy-invading machines can emit high levels of deadly ionizing radiation, Pistole has presented more rehashed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data as "evidence" that the machines are safe -- and he is actually purporting that this biased data is sufficient to verify the machines' safety.

"My strong belief is those types of machines are still completely safe," said Pistole at a recent hearing of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. "If the determination is that this IG (inspector general) study is not sufficient, then I will look at still yet another additional study."

Unfortunately for Pistole and his cronies at DHS and TSA, having a "strong belief" about something does not make it true. And Pistole's repeated avoidance of allowing a real investigation into the safety of naked body scanners clearly shows that he and his corrupt agency have something to hide from the public.

Pistole's use of the words "still yet another additional study" basically insinuates that existing studies have already verified the safety of backscatter naked body scanners -- but they definitely have not. In fact, the supposed "safety data" that the TSA has been relying on to assert the safety of the machines was exposed as fraudulent earlier this year (https://www.naturalnews.com/032425_airport_sc...).

Not only was the data flawed, but the study was conducted in secret by unnamed scientists, and by the company that makes the machines, Rapiscan Systems. The safety tests also did not even involve the actual machines used at airports -- they involved phony "mock-up" machines made of random spare parts at the company's manufacturing unit.

That Pistole would even suggest that existing "safety" studies conducted in this manner are legitimate is an insult to the intelligence of every American. And yet millions of Americans continue to comply with TSA's unconstitutional use of these deadly machines, and willfully subject their bodies to blasts of carcinogenic ionizing radiation every day.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.propublica.org/article/tsa-puts-o...