Physical Search
or X-ray Screening?
By Bashir A. Syed*
US
Radiation produces cumulative
effects in any system. For example light is a
part of electromagnetic radiation just like X-rays
(except that it has longer wavelength than X-rays).
Anyone who is experienced in photography, knows
that the more the light falls on a photographic
film the darker it becomes. The reason is two-fold:
(1) Light photons are less energetic than X-rays
are (since energy of a photon is proportional
to the frequency of radiation according to de
Broglie's Law in Physics). Thus anyone who has
film in the camera, which has undergone multiple
passes at the airport security, knows that it
begins to fog due to the cumulative effect (Kodak
specifications after testing are only good for
one "pass" through airport X-ray scanners,
a flawed concept of "Safe Dose.")
Similarly X-rays affect the cells in the human
body, producing mutations of the chromosome and
altering the DNA. And no one knows the so-called
safe limit or "threshold" at which harm
is done. What may be a safe dose for person "A"
may not be a safe dose for person "B."
No one had known the damage produced by radiation
in space, which affected four astronauts (three
died of leukemia, and one with brain tumor). It
was the Concord plane flights which startled the
scientists, and when British researchers placed
neutron detectors (sensors) they were totally
amazed to find the high levels of secondary neutrons
in the Concord plane capable of causing serious
harm to the chromosomes and DNA. Then the scientist
conducted a study of neutrons with altitude, they
found them in most passenger aircraft flying at
an altitude of about 35,000 feet, but almost manifold
at the altitude of 65,000 feet, at which the Concord
flew.
This led to a warning to frequent flyers, and
FAA told the airlines crew to cut down their flying
hours to reduce the cumulative dose. Last year
I was traveling from Bejing to Los Angeles, and
stretching myself on a long flight at the back
where the Stewardesses prepared their snacks and
meals. I was standing right next to a Korean Oncology
Professor, and we started chatting on the same
subject (being overheard by some of these ladies).
One stewardess got up and told us that the warning
given by FAA was correct, as she herself had undergone
a few surgical operations after suffering from
radiation damage.
Any one who tells you about the safe level of
radiation or any carcinogen, is indeed giving
you an accepted value agreed and based upon numerous
assumptions and variables. Human beings without
knowing receive a lot of radiation dose in their
life, some from medical X-rays, other from professional
work, and nature (cosmic radiation) and radon,
etc., which affects us all. Thus no one knows
exactly what is the threshold for you or himself,
which is only a speculation and assumed conventional
limit.
In view of this I would rather undergo a physical
search, rather than subject my body to the radiation
which penetrates my body and causes harmful effects
in the process. Thus all educated and sensible
people must oppose the use of such intrusive devices
which ultimately cause harm.
Time magazine first reported the case of a cop
who would place his radar gun on his thighs during
driving without realizing the harm. A few months
later he began feeling discomfort in his genitals,
and the physical exam revealed that by placing
the radar gun in his lap, the cells in his testicles
got damaged causing testicular cancer.
During the 1980's, when I was working at GE's
Electronic Systems Department building radar systems,
we had a technician who used to test systems in
the anachoic chamber without taking precautions.
One day he was found to have leukemia, and died
within a year.
The moral of the story is that radiation is an
invisible, odorless, silent killer, and if precautions
are not observed, it can kill a person.
*Retired Aerospace Physicist
Member: APS, IEEE (Nuclear & Space Radiation
Effects, and Nucl. & Plasma Physics Soc.),
UCS, New York Academy of Sciences. Served as Member
of Radiation Safety Committee, NASA/JSC, Houston,
TX.
References:
1. Ernest Sternglass (introduction b George Wald,
Nobel Laureate), "SECRET FALLOUT: Low-Level
Radiation from Hiroshima to Three Mile Island,"
McGraw-Hill Paperbacks, New York 1981. ISBN 0-07-061242-0.
2. Eileen Wellsome, "PLUTONIUM FILES<"
Dial Press, Random House, New York 1999.
3. Dr. Dryer's research work in UK, on Secondary
Neutrons in Concord and other airplanes, presented
at IEEE (NSREC Meetings Tutorials about seven
years ago)
Just perform Google search on this topic (and
Depleted Uranium), and one will be amazed to find
the amount of literature on this subject.
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