Friday, August 27, 2010

Back Scatter X-Ray

I'm fortunate to be receiving treatment at UCSF. Doctors there have raised questions about the safety of back scatter X-ray scanners at airport security checkpoints. It's not surprising that money would be spent on new toys to allegedly prevent terrorism before health consequences have been fully considered, but another development is surprising even to jaded old me: Roving vans scanning cars using the same technology.

For now I'm not even going to worry about whether or not the Patriot Act has rendered the Fourth Amendment quaint and obsolete. A more important question might be whether or not any qualified body of medical professionals weighed in on the potential risks involved here. Would possibly stopping a car bomb or two be worth irradiating the citizens those bombs were meant to kill?

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