'Naked' scanners removed, air travelers get back a little dignity...

[Gman]

http://now.msn.com/backscatter-x-ray-scanners-to-be-removed-from-airports


It's a sad day for airport exhibitionists. Backscatter X-ray machines that produce naked images are being removed from U.S. airports because their manufacturer couldn't write software to make passenger images less revealing. The changes were mandated after privacy advocates sued the TSA in 2010, claiming the scanners violated the law and were equivalent to a "physically invasive strip search." The machines will be replaced by units from another company that don't use X-rays to peek under your clothes. Now if you want to flash someone at an airport, you'll have to go old school with a trench coat and willingness to be arrested on the spot.
It's about time. Shouldn't have happened in the first place.

[Guylee]

Fine with me. After my last flight, I'm more worried about the plane falling apart and crashing than I am someone taking it over with a nail file.

[ChunkyMonkey]

How many billions wasted, millions citizens pissed off, and terrorists caught from this?

[nynco]

Fine with me. After my last flight, I'm more worried about the plane falling apart and crashing than I am someone taking it over with a nail file.


I WHOLE HEARTEDLY AGREE... Thanks to airline deregulation paid for by the airline industry, most major maintenance is performed outside of the US. Sorry, but I don't trust outside countries to service our own airlines. It won't be their people that die and the regulations they follow overseas.... well, what are those? Thanks Bush...

[merl]

nope, naked scanners still there.

The ones that are slow and irradiate you are going away. to be replaced by faster ones using microwaves instead of xrays.

[islandermyk]

Fine with me. After my last flight, I'm more worried about the plane falling apart and crashing than I am someone taking it over with a nail file.


did we get on one that had speed tape holding a panel together [ROFL1]

[nynco]

did we get on one that had speed tape holding a panel together [ROFL1]

Heck the first plane I jumped out of had ductape all over the thing. Get me off this plane... lol

[silentshooter]

nope, naked scanners still there.

The ones that are slow and irradiate you are going away. to be replaced by faster ones using microwaves instead of xrays.

Well they are not naked scanners in that no longer will a person be in a room out of site looting at an image of you naked. The machines that are staying show just a generic outline of a person and any so called hot spots that it thinks might have contraband so that a TSA agent can feel you up in that spot

[Dave]

Rather be scanned than fondled to be honest. Last few times I flew out of DIA I seemed to get the 300 pound guy who was sweating from just walking from stool he was on and proceeded to take the whole pat down thing way too seriously. Pat down is the term, not grab and jiggle. [Rant1]

[Jer]

My wife and I opted out every time we traveled. From what we've researched there are two basic versions of those things and one is questionable as far as exposure to harmful rays and the other is a question mark. No thanks. We opted out and made them get a male and female TSA agent to manually search us... IE, free grope. I was amazed at how many people were fine with going through those things in the name of saving time or going along to get along or doing what they're told or whatever. In a little way I feel like we did our part to make things just that much more difficult on the TSA which may or may not have helped. Glad they came to their sense and now we just need to work on the rest of the TSA BS they're cramming down our throats.

[cstone]

The Rapiscan machine using backscatter x-ray technology was never found to be harmful. The machines were removed because the company could not meet the deadline to produce non-detailed body images. The L3 machines using millimeter wave technology have had the "gingerbread man" type images for some time and therefore those machines were chosen to continue and to replace the existing x-ray machines. This decision had more to do with the public reaction to the images they produced. TSA chose the image with less detail rather than more detail.

Both technologies, backscatter x-ray and millimeter wave have been used for over a decade on millions of people. There is not a single documented case of damage to a human being caused by either technology. Every passenger who spends more than one hour at 35,000 feet will be exposed to much more radiation than passing through one of these machines.

If the government promised not to spend the money on something else equally stupid, I would be whole heartedly in favor of disbanding the TSA. Since that is not possible, then what the money is wasted on becomes much less important to me, since our government seem intent to waste the money on something.

Be safe.

[BushMasterBoy]

Yeah take the machines to Iraq and Afghanistan and search the locals going into our military installations with suicide vests and personal IED's. $40 million worth of xray machines oughta go to good use...

[wreave]

Can I still get a Freedom Grope?

[joedelt]

The Rapiscan machine using backscatter x-ray technology was never found to be harmful. The machines were removed because the company could not meet the deadline to produce non-detailed body images. The L3 machines using millimeter wave technology have had the "gingerbread man" type images for some time and therefore those machines were chosen to continue and to replace the existing x-ray machines. This decision had more to do with the public reaction to the images they produced. TSA chose the image with less detail rather than more detail.

Both technologies, backscatter x-ray and millimeter wave have been used for over a decade on millions of people. There is not a single documented case of damage to a human being caused by either technology. Every passenger who spends more than one hour at 35,000 feet will be exposed to much more radiation than passing through one of these machines.

If the government promised not to spend the money on something else equally stupid, I would be whole heartedly in favor of disbanding the TSA. Since that is not possible, then what the money is wasted on becomes much less important to me, since our government seem intent to waste the money on something.

Be safe.

And yet neither air crews nor infants went through the backscatter machines. Going through screenings almost 200 times a year I took a pass every time on those machines.

[Jer]

And yet neither air crews nor infants went through the backscatter machines. Going through screenings almost 200 times a year I took a pass every time on those machines.

Exactly. Perfectly safe.

[Drilldov2.0]

Last time I flew, I had to go through one. I asked the TSA agent where was my dollar in the waist band? She laughed and said I needed to dance for it. I did and got 17 hits on the scan. Needless to say, I got scanned again. Never did get my dollar.

[merl]

Yeah take the machines to Iraq and Afghanistan and search the locals going into our military installations with suicide vests and personal IED's. $40 million worth of xray machines oughta go to good use...

they may well get sold off surplus for such uses. After they get shipped to all the tiny airports across the country.

Much more likely that they get sold off surplus to guard the entrance to your local theater.


Both technologies, backscatter x-ray and millimeter wave have been used for over a decade on millions of people. There is not a single documented case of damage to a human being caused by either technology. Every passenger who spends more than one hour at 35,000 feet will be exposed to much more radiation than passing through one of these machines.

yep, guaranteed more radiation at flight level. Proving anything, we're dealing in probabilities, low ones at that. not a big deal ther as long as the machines are calibrated.

This is a 'how much shit will the public tolerate' issue more than anything. TSA is trying to calm some of the hatred directed at them with this step.

[n8tive97]

What? You mean I won't get any more looks of amazement after they check out my luggage?

[cstone]

The backscatter x-ray machines will likely end up in courthouses, correctional institutions, and local jails. They will probably be provided as a federal grant to jurisdictions that couldn't otherwise afford the machines.

Having done the nasty deed of crotch searching arrestees before they were provided with nifty slippers, jumpsuits, their colored water and gray bologna sammiches, I would be most happy to allow the machine to electronically probe their most intimate regions for contraband rather than have to do it myself. But I guess there are some who prefer a more personal touch.

Be safe.

[THe Yetti]

I think asbestos was used for well longer than a decade before they figured out it wasn't good for you either.

[cstone]

I think asbestos was used for well longer than a decade before they figured out it wasn't good for you either.

Do you mean breathing the loose fibers while in enclosed spaces? Asbestos in a stable form is still one of the most cost effective fire retardant systems. Lawyers like Peter Angelos have made a fortune in product liability suits which cost consumers and taxpayers far more money than it has generated for the people who were exposed to asbestos.

If you are implying that years from now we may find out that over exposure to low levels of radiation over many years may turn out to have harmful effects, I won't argue that point. Please put down your cell phone, don't have any more medical x-rays including dental. Please don't get an MRI or CAT scan, and for goodness sake stay away from flying at commercial aviation altitudes. Who knows what all of the wifi radio waves will do. Maybe the genetically altered food or use of plastic for storing food will kill us.

At least you have a choice at the airport; get irradiated or groped. Your tax dollars at work.

How much fear should we respond to while going about our daily lives?

Be safe.

[Ashton]

At least now they don't have to search me for a pipe bomb between my legs. About damn time.

[silentshooter]

I think asbestos was used for well longer than a decade before they figured out it wasn't good for you either.

Yet we have been doing radiation studies at NASA for Decades for the space program, Xray studies for medical research, and tons of RF studies for the FDA and FCC. I think we have done a little more research.
Asbestos really is just a non toxic stone, the issue is just like other silicates is when it is inhaled in your lungs. Unlike other silicates its fibers are extremely small. And to make maters worse certain types are extremely resistant to water requiring special encapsulates to knock the fibers down. We have know the effects since the 1930's in the US and in the 1800's the first cases were discovered.

There has always been asbestos fibers in the air, arctic ice shows this. And human lungs have shown that we all have tens of thousands of asbestos fibers in our lungs. It requires extreme and repeated exposure to asbestos to cause major health issues.

[silentshooter]

Do you mean breathing the loose fibers while in enclosed spaces? Asbestos in a stable form is still one of the most cost effective fire retardant systems. Lawyers like Peter Angelos have made a fortune in product liability suits which cost consumers and taxpayers far more money than it has generated for the people who were exposed to asbestos.


as someone who has been a Certified Asbestos supervisor and who's family owns a large remediation company you are spot on. Asbestos is just something they have put a spot light on. You know all the guys from ground zero with lung issues, those are not from asbestos. That is from extreme exposure to thing like silicates and other fibers. When your Lungs can't expunge what you breath your body tries to absorb and break it down. The acids can cause scaring with things like asbestos and silicates as they are not broken down easily.

Simply put anything in to large of Dosage over prolonged exposure can cause issues. Astronauts have a maximum lifetime REM count that they can reach, Pilots as well are monitored in annual physicals because of the increased radiation exposure.

[pepito]

Aww :(
I didn't mind looking at my physique on the monitor. Told the TSA gal, "sexy lats right? I'm kind of a big deal."