Do TSA Scanners Cause Cancer?
By Mary Theroux • Monday July 11, 2011 5:34 PM PDT • 7 Comments
As previously posted, scientists from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)—including a nationally-respected cancer expert and members of the National Academy of Scientists—are seriously concerned that they do, and now TSA union reps in Boston have cited a “cancer cluster” among TSA workers there.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center has obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act showing that TSA workers in Boston have reported elevated rates of cancer, and that TSA workers’ requests to wear radiation-detecting badges have been denied. According to this account, TSA workers in Portland and Puerto Rico have also reported higher incidences of cancer.
Given the federal government’s abysmal role in posing serious health dangers in the past (e.g., from the 1940s’ Tuskegee and Guatemalan syphilis tests, to the CDC’s injection of L.A.-area babies with an experimental measles vaccine in the 1990s, and more), reasonable people should demand that the government be held to the same standards for exposing travelers to medical devices (x-ray machines) as the FDA requires for private manufacturers.
In a letter to Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, the concerned UCSF scientists last year warned:
Our overriding concern is the extent to which the safety of this scanning device has been adequately demonstrated. This can only be determined by a meeting of an impartial panel of experts that would include medical physicists and radiation biologists at which all of the available relevant data is reviewed.
An important consideration is that a large fraction of the population will be subject to the new X-ray scanners and be at potential risk, as discussed below. This raises a number of ‘red flags’. Can we have an urgent second independent evaluation?
As documented in the Independent Institute book, HAZARDOUS TO OUR HEALTH? FDA Regulation of Health Care Products, and extensively on our website FDAReview.org, the federal government routinely deprives Americans of beneficial devices for years of tests. Yet millions of Americans can be exposed to potentially lethal technology on the say-so of unaccountable federal bureaucrats.
It’s time to loudly echo the calls of Independent Institute Fellow Art Carden and Rep. Ron Paul to abolish the TSA—which is unaccountable and immune from liability should it fail to protect travelers from either terrorist attacks or health hazards—and return airport security to private firms who can and would be held accountable, including for health dangers.
In the meantime, air travelers may wish to carry a copy of the warning letter from UCSF scientists, and copies of these articles (here and here) that cite increased cancer among TSA workers, to hand to the next TSA agent who tries to herd you through a machine only the government says is safe.
Tags: Civil Liberties, Civil Society, Environment, Liberty, Peace, Personal Liberty, Surveillance, Terrorism, The State, Transportation 
Imagine a scenario in which a corporation in the private sector subjected its customers to irradiating devices like this that resulted in increased cancer rates! The law suits would be endless.
But it’s the TSA. Never mind.
Steve Hogan | Jul 11, 2011 | Reply
Beware Deception. TSA could discontinue the scanning and groping–then pull a false flag plane bomb—so the public would demand the resumption of scanning to cause cancer. Eugenics is the bottom line. Fukushima will probably make Hawaii unlivable, soon, except for the military base that it was taken for, in the first place.
Aloha
wilson | Jul 12, 2011 | Reply
Actually, I can imagine it. It’s called the tobacco industry!
Josh K | Jul 12, 2011 | Reply
Josh:
Smoking is a voluntary activity pursued by individuals making the choice. One can argue about how informed the choice has been over the decades, though it’s pretty inarguable that anyone choosing to smoke today has no ethical recourse as the risks are more fully communicated than for almost any other activity.
The argument as to how much the tobacco industry misled consumers about the risks of its products in the past has been the basis for many lawsuits, some resulting in huge damages being levied.
How much have those responsible for the health experiments carried out by various government agencies paid? And remember, any “damages” paid out by government only victimize us twice: once directly for those harmed by such experiments; and the the second by stealing the money used to pay the victims from taxpayers innocent of culpability.
Mary Theroux | Jul 12, 2011 | Reply
The other evening on an episode of American Restoration on the History Channel, they restored an “x-ray shoe fit sizer”… apparently back when x-ray was first invented/discovered, they did not understand the harmful side effects. This machine was used in shoe stores, and the customer would place his feet into small ports at the bottom, and the salesman could look through a lens and see the bone structure of the foot (how this would help with sizing a shoe is anyone’s guess). This machine is obviously looked on as a joke in this day and age, and many comments were shared on the show in respect to how stupid it would be to be anywhere near the device, let alone voluntarily placing one’s foot inside of it. Yet if one places a government agency’s name in front of it, such as TSA, most people abandon all common sense, and simply follow the sheep in front of them as they file through the machine. I weep for my country, not because of the growth of the machine we know as government, but because of my fellow citizen’s inability to question not only it’s legitimacy, but it’s wisdom; I thank-you for all of the work that you do. Educating the masses is a job made all the more difficult by the fact that the government spends the first 12-16 years of a person’s education life misinforming him to believe that such mindless loyalty is “normal” and right, and you are to be commended for your work to “undo” this.
joe4liberty | Jul 12, 2011 | Reply
Mary, I don’t mean to answer for Josh, but his point is valid (as are your comments) the question was imagine a private sector business that caused cancer. That would be the tobacco industry. Your comments are also correct which even further proves Steve’s point. With tobacco it’s voluntary, and they get sued. With TAD it’s forced and they are immune...
joe4liberty | Jul 12, 2011 | Reply
When I was a boy, all the shoe shops had an x-ray machine. We loved it. You could waggle your toes about and watch the bones moving. Your mum would look down a viewer on one side, the shoe salesman on the other and you in the middle. The salesman could control a pointer to show your mum how well or badly the shoe fitted. Magic.
I haven’t got cancer of the foot yet... but I do wonder about those shoe salesmen.
John Harrison | Jul 13, 2011 | Reply