What caught my eye, is this section:

Not only has the use of full-body image scanners raised the ire of passengers and serious questions about their constitutionality, but they may also present a serious health risk.

The devices operate on a combination of X-ray technology and millimeter wave technology . Relatively new on the scene, millimeter wave technology has been proven capable of interfering with human DNA. The ultimate results of this exposure remain unknown. Though technically medical devices, the scanners have never been tested or approved by the FDA.

This new “millimeter wave” X-ray technology seems to raise some serious concerns. I, for one, am concerned for my family when it comes to these full body scanners. Some of the questions were raised on the Stranded Passengers blog site are of serious concern. Things like, would it cause birth defects? Cause infertility? Cause birth defects in future babies? Can it cause brain damage? The “millimeter wave” is believed to damage DNA, which cannot be “fixed” or “repaired”. It can permanently affect you and your offspring, as DNA is passed to your future children and grandchildren.

The other technology used in full body scanners is called “backscatter X-ray“.

Other references:
http://strandedpassengers.blogspot.com/2010/01/full-body-scanners-used-on-air.html (they have links to BusinessWeek and New York Times articles)

http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/aopsk/the_energy_emitted_by_millimeter_wave_scanners/

I cannot believe that the NY/NJ Port Authority is not using a “more proprietary” radio frequency. Listening to the radio transmissions, it seems that they are on the same frequency as other civilian businesses using UHF radios. Whoever decided on using those “store bought” (well it has to be from a specialized 2-way radio dealer) radios is kind of a joke.

Literally, terrorists can simply get onto that frequency by purchasing one of those easily obtainable radios and keep it keyed up. The Port Authority police would basically have no 2-way radio service. Unlike the Fox 5 News report, it is not a “concern” it is a disaster waiting to happen.

Just imagine, if the TV station transmitters were easily available for purchase by civilians. All that a terrorist needs to do is have one of these transmitters on and send a blank signal (well, more exactly “radio noise”) and effectively it would kill the true signal and nobody would be able to watch a particular TV channel (over-the-air, that is). Now imagine that happening with the cell tower frequencies. Hmmm…. yeah, that is why those frequencies are restricted from civilians.

I think Homeland Security and the NYC Anti-Terrorism Task Force (maybe even the mayor and governors of both states) needs to force the Port Authority to resolve this issue ASAP. It is an easy fix. Just replace the radios and the repeaters. Keeping them UHF radios, would not require them to replace antennas (which can be more difficult). It really is a no-brainer, it is only some money. President Obama seems to be printing them out of the Treasury, so what is another truck load? At least these would actually save lives, unlike those full body scanners which can cause some unknown DNS damage (but that is another post).

So beware while driving through the NY/NJ tunnels and bridges. This issue seems to affect all of them.

I can see it now, some dumb TSA agent with a bad day (or a have “fun” day) would take a cell phone video of their scans and post them on YouTube (much like what we see in the news reports today). Granted we are told that the TSA agent would not see the person and be in another room. However, what stops 2 of these agents from working together and coordinating a recording session for pure kicks. The day these start showing up on YouTube or Vimeo and go viral, is the day the lawyers would start having their next few years worth of vacations paid for by the US taxpayers.

On top of that, there is a concern of ionizing radiation exposure. Although they keep saying that the amounts are 1% of a dental X-ray, it is still too much. Consider that during a dental X-ray your body is covered with a lead shield and all metal objects are moved away from the X-ray path. Are we all going to strip our jewelry, watches, coins, keys, cell phones, etc. from our person before being digital strip searched? How much time is this going to take per person? Say in the ideal condition it takes 2 minutes per passenger. Multiply that by the number passengers per flight and flights per hour during peak travel times … we need to take a day off from work just to fly to our meeting that evening (if not the next day).

Since these body scans are 3D, what is stopping some enterprising person from capturing the images and making physical dolls of some famous person or celebrity, then selling them? How many people would like to have their physical characteristics made publicly available to the world to see and touch?

These new scanners are designed to see-through the clothes. What happens when a terrorist decides to weave the bomb into their clothing? Are we all suppose to fly naked next? Computer programmed code is the “secret sauce” behind these scanners. What is to stop someone from “reversing” or “hacking” this video stream and show the facial features of the person being scanned? (already happened, see links at the bottom of this blog) Remember, the recent TSA issue of the digitally blacked-out operations manual, which outlined all of their security weaknesses?

Bottom line, my opinion is that these full body scanners are:
1. an invasion of privacy (just imagine a sexy, well figured, lady having her TSA body scan images posted all over the Internet)
2. a few years from now, we will start hearing about people who travel more frequent than average having tumors
3. the delays would cause the travel industry to take another hit and may even cause more airlines to go out of business; how does that help the economy?

Lastly, has the government even considered getting that head out of the hole in the wall and realize that the flying cargo goes 90% unchecked? To get a bomb to go off in a plane can be as simple as shipping something as air cargo in the belly of the flight you want to permanently cancel.

I think if the United States would stop telling other countries what they should or shouldn’t do, we will have a lot less terrorism and hatred aim toward us. Granted I believe is spreading democracy, however, President Obama “demanding” other countries to do what he says is going too far. It just pisses off (or at least give reason) for Al-Qaeda and others extremist groups to target America. Time for America to demonstrate with loving actions to others that we are there to help and not control other countries. Hell, America can start by helping our own American citizens. Obama, where is the mid-class American citizen’s bailout? We should have never bailed out people and companies who made bad decisions, but that is for another blog entry.

Given all these extra technological steps (mostly useless, in my opinion) to prevent terrorism (more like an invasion of privacy), no wonder why so many more people are driving to their destinations when possible, instead of flying. At least I know I won’t get digitally strip searched and potentially have those images posted on the Internet before I jump into my car and drive.

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Updates:
info posted by ABC News 7online: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=7197652

read: TSA lies exposed: Full-body scanner machines do save and transmit images, secret documents reveal

full-body scanned images can be inverted to show image of nude women (with her face), see: Full-body scanner cannot replace diplomacy but imposes indecency on billions. Law says indecent exposure is crime, doesn’t it?

more proof of how perverted the scans can be, see: Ban ‘naked body’ scanners

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see what people are tweeting about on this topic:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=body%20scanner
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