Radiation Concerns About Airport X-ray Scanners

[LLJones]

To Slaphappy,

I'm glad we kind of agree. If the protocols had been enacted when the aviation industry first realized that they had a major problem, again in the 70's, Then I do not think 9/11 would have happened.

Let's assume you want to fly a plane into a structure. You will never get a gun on board, so your limited to an edged weapon, however the Air Marshall has a gun and we know about bringing a knife to gun fight.You also have to worry about the pilot and possibly one of the air crew being armed. You make your move, if you guessed right, the Marshall is in front of you, if you guessed wrong, he/she is behind you. The first thing all of the passengers are going to is duck, this leaves you and the Marshall standing, hope you guessed right. But regardless, you will never ever gain access to the cockpit. Cold hard fact, people are going to die but the plane will not be taken over. This scenario holds true even if there are 4 or 5 of you.

After you weigh the pros and cons, you will come up with another plan. That it was it was meant to do, make it so difficult that it deters you. Is this the best idea, maybe not, would it have worked, I firmly believe yes.

I will concede smuggling explosives onto a plane. This is why. Even if the security was in place, airport personal would become lax. So, now your on board with a good amount of C4(what the hell, you've got very good underworld contacts)you have to wait for the right time to maximize the damage. Still you will not be able to gain access to the cockpit so you get everyone on board and a few on the ground. Let's suppose that you even manage to coordinate with 4 other people on separate flights, loss of life would probably top out at 1600 and property damage would be nothing compared to the towers. I can not stress enough that there would be no access to the cockpit, and this alone might be enough to stop you. The airports would introduce explosive detectors and that would be that.

The sad fact is Gov. and industry did not do any of it until AFTER Thousands were killed. I often wonder what magic number industry and Gov. came up with relating to how many people had to die before they would do anything. I was betting on about 650.

This is why I get so mad about these kinds of articles. No one holds the airlines or Gov. responsible and we cow under to the new "safety" standards followed immediately by the new airport tax to cover all of this. It also makes the Gov. a ****load of extra money, but shhh, your not supposed to know.

So people, get used to being irradiated (and you thought taking your shoes off was a pain), because it will seem minor once they start insisting on DNA samples.

Anyhow, try to have a good one

 

[LLJones]

@#$%^&$#%^%##%^%$#&*&* double posts and no edit. Sorry for that. I guess triple post now. So sorry,sorry.

 

[balister]

[citation][nom]Medicine not BS[/nom]OMG.. Its WAVELENGTH not EXPOSURE. Mrems DO. NOT. MATTER.Same reason there is ZERO (go look it up) radiation right next to a cell tower, and why a bluetooth is safer next to your ear than a cell phone.Radiation decay is in an inverse relationship to wavelenth. It is fast decay, short wavelength radiation that is particularly bad for you. You know, like x-rays and atom bombs. The replicating DNA damage and resulting cellular mutation happens quickly, and can result from a SINGLE exposure.Yes, short decay, long wavelength light (from the sun, for example) can cause cancer, but it takes years of exposure.[/citation]

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! Dose COMPLETELY matters. Have you ever heard of term LD 50/50? If not, let me clue you in. LD 50/50 is the lethal dose that is required to kill 50% of the population at that Dose. The accepted dose for LD 50/50 is around 300 REM (this is a one time dose all at once, not over a lifetime). Some people have survived taking higher doses, have have died taking lower doses. Likewise, it depends where the dose is taken as well on how lethal is may be. (I've heard of accidental exposures where people have taken extreme doses to extremities like hand and feet, but survived because they didn't take the same doses to the Torso or Head.)

It's also fairly well established that the chance of getting cancer rises signifcantly as lifetime dose approaches 100 REM. You can receive 100 REM very quickly (accidental exposure) or slowly over time for various sources and it doesn't matter if the source is from X Rays/Gamma Rays, from Alpha and Beta emitters (within the body, outside the body Alpha's are harmless and only high energy Betas become an issue), and Neutrons (the most damaging form of radiation). The vast majority of the public is going to see exposure from X Rays with some incidental radiation from Alpha and Beta emitters (like Radon gas, an Alpha emitter). The general public is unlikely to reach the 100 REM lifetime dose, so cancer due to radiation is more unlikely for the general populous (most likely form of cancer that the general populous will see from radiation would be melanoma, aka skin cancer).

As to long wavelengths, the jury is still out. There have been a number of medical studies, but no one has determined if the longer wavelenghts (infared, microwave, radio, etc) have detrimental effects.

 

[Guest]

Well, as it is now known that sniffer dogs are more efficient in detecting explosives from
human bodies than the scanners and only cost $8,000 to train and are, in fact, being used,
and since one scanner costs at much as buying a house, I am wondering why the dogs
are not used in the U.K.and USA instead of the scanners? Does this have to do with
someone making money?????