Medical doctors speak out about why they avoid naked body scanners at airports

Sunday, April 03, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: naked body scanners, doctors, health news

(NaturalNews) For those still contemplating whether or not the radiation emitted from airport naked body scanners is serious enough to avoid, you may be interested to know that many doctors routinely "opt out" and choose the full-body pat down instead because they recognize the inherent dangers associated with any level of radiation exposure. A recent CNN piece explains that for many doctors, avoiding all sources of radiation whenever possible is just the smart thing to do.

Throughout the past year, NaturalNews has covered many stories related to the US Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) controversial naked body scanners, which are now installed and in use at nearly 80 US airports (http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/ait/faqs.sh...). Besides representing an unconstitutional invasion of privacy (http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/ait/faqs.sh...), the scanners blast passengers with full-body doses of health-destroying radiation (https://www.naturalnews.com/naked_body_scanne...).

So what do medical doctors who fly have to say about the machines? Well, according to CNN's Elizabeth Cohen who recently conducted her own small investigation, many are concerned about the radiation these scanners emit. In fact, Cohen quotes several doctors who express concern about the cumulative effects of repeated radiation exposure, even if such exposure is supposedly miniscule and below established thresholds for causing harm.

"I do whatever I can to avoid the scanner. This is a total body scan -- not a dental or chest X-ray," said Dr. Len Lichtenfield to Cohen in an email. "Total body radiation is not something I find very comforting based on my medical knowledge."

Another doctor explained that there is "no absolutely safe dose of radiation," and that "each exposure is additive." So even if the supposedly low radiation doses emitted from the naked body scanners are as low as TSA and the machines' manufacturers claim they are, habitual exposure will still cause bodily harm.

Even Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS) expressed concern about whether the safety of them machines, and whether or not TSA is properly maintaining and testing them for safety. After all, TSA refused to release safety reports for quite some time, and when they did, the bungled reports explained nothing more than TSA's high level of incompetence (https://www.naturalnews.com/031792_airport_sc...).

Back in December, radiation scientists admitted that naked body scanners are fully capable of causing both sperm mutations and cancer, despite insistence by authorities to the contrary (https://www.naturalnews.com/030607_naked_body...). Other reports suggest that nobody really knows how much radiation is actually emitted from naked body scanners due to flawed and inconclusive safety tests (https://www.naturalnews.com/031792_airport_sc...)

Sources for this story include:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/31/ep.airp...