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DHS X-ray Car Scanners Now At Border Crossings

Posted by samzenpus on from the scanning-what-you-have-to-declare dept.

OverTheGeicoE writes "CNET has a story on DHS' whole car X-ray scanners and their potential cancer risks. The story focuses on the Z Portal scanner, which appears to be a stationary version of the older Z Backscatter Vans. The story provides interesting pictures of the device and the images it produces, but it also raises important questions about the devices' cancer risks. The average energy of the X-ray beam used is three times that used in a CT scan, which could be big trouble for vehicle passengers and drivers should a vehicle stop in mid-scan. Some studies show the risk for cancer from CT scans can be quite high. Worse still, the DHS estimates of the Z Portal's radiation dosage are likely to be several orders of magnitude too low. 'Society will pay a huge price in cancer because of this,' according to one scientist."

12 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Here's a fix. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We should have a one-day travel strike, where nobody travels except on essential tasks. Repeat regularly until results are obtained.

    When the TSA starts costing businesses money, our bought-and-paid-for Congress will rein them in.

    (Heh, you probably thought a B&PFC wasn't good for anything.)

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    1. Re:Here's a fix. by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The TSA should be abolished. This is getting ridiculous. I think their new plan is that if the "terrorists" have cancer they will be too weak to be a threat and the public will be too sick to be a nuisance as well. I'm slowly caring less and less about the TSA grunts, but why are they not required to wear radiation monitors for their own protection? The idiots in charge are not getting exposed to any of this, nor are they using know best practices for dealing with radiation.

    2. Re:Here's a fix. by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is getting ridiculous.

      Getting? It was ridiculous eight years ago. At this point, they've crossed the line into gross criminal negligence, reckless endangerment, and willful malfeasance. They should not merely be abolished. They, along with everyone who voted to create them, should be sent to prison with very, very long terms to set an example for anyone who might contemplate usurping the Constitution of this great nation in the future.

      Throwing them out on the street with no jobs is way, way too good for these unAmerican traitors.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  2. Re:I don't think it's X-Rays by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article specified X-rays or gamma rays. I hate the DHS more than anybody else here, because I have to drive through their checkpoints on a fairly regular basis, but I would hope that they would at least make everybody get out of the car and at a safe distance away from the machine while the scan is performed. They're looking for large amounts of money, dope, guns, or explosives; things that would not be carried on a person.

    Also, as the guy below stated, freedom-loving Americans (and foreigners with business in the 'States) need to be more proactive at expressing their displeasure of the DHS.

  3. Only when properly calibrated! by JavaTHut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The average energy of the X-ray beam used is three times that used in a CT scan

    This assumes professional calibration! This should read "The average energy of the X-ray beam when calibrated by an apathetic TSA employee is a hell of a lot more than three times that used in a CT scan calibrated by a hospital technician"

    1. Re:Only when properly calibrated! by rHBa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For its part, Homeland Security says the dose is safe and based on commonly accepted government standards (PDF) established by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement, which would permit 2,500 scans a year for each person. CBP's specifications also require the manufacturer to "perform an evaluation of the potential effect of radiation exposure on public safety on the proposed system." In addition, a CBP representative told CNET that the machines are currently only used in secondary inspections (most people go through just the primary inspection).

      I think, as a good will gesture, the Director/CEO of the TSA and his family should undergo 2,500 scans a year.

      Then I'd think about believing it's safe.

  4. Re:This will definitely increase cancer risks by hedwards · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's a reason why the X-ray technicians usually leave the room when X-rays are being taken. Just being in the same room ensures that you'll get at least some exposure. The new digital equipment is better than the older ones were, but you're still talking about additional radiation.

  5. Re:The CT Scan Claim from TFA by sjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At the same time, medical ethics permits that risk because the potential benefit is higher and accrues to the patient undergoing the risk. No such benefit exists for a DHS scan. We get all the risk but no benefit.

  6. Seems like the terrorists won by c0lo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No need for other terrorist attacks: the US govt (TSA) terrorizes and, possible, kills their own citizens. What's more surreal: the citizens pay for it!!

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  7. Safety? by mrquagmire · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem here is that these machines (and the ones like them at the airports) were never about public nor personal safety. They were always about creating the appearance that we are safer and making a few people with ties to the TSA quite wealthy. Until we actually fix the military-industrial-complex-like problems that plague our government at almost every level, we will increasingly have to deal with these stupid issues.

    --
    giggity
  8. Make them eat their own dogfood by HockeyPuck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't understand why the government officials that are funding/sponsoring this crap aren't forced to go through all the scanners and such.

    Why do they get to fly on private jets and such without having to go through the same invasive searches as the rest of us.

    Someone should make all of congress and the executive branch go through this crap before they board their own "all first class", caviar and champagne filled jets.

    How much fuel and money could we save if instead of putting congress/executive branch in first class chairs, we stuffed them into cattle car like the rest of us that fly?

    To quote Animal Farm, "All animals are created equal, yet some animals are more equal than others."

  9. Re:I don't think it's X-Rays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Freedom loving Americans, that takes me back to my childhood to just before the fall of the U.S.S.R. Freedom loving Americans vs the Freedom Hating Commies.

    Strange, some of the stuff we are doing now to preserve our freedom would sound like B-rate uber-U.S.S.R. activities back then.