DHS X-ray Car Scanners Now At Border Crossings

[AF6LJ]

Well now you can't cross the border without being subjected to cancer causing radiation.

DHS X-ray Car Scanners Now At Border Crossings
OverTheGeicoE writes
"CNET has a story on DHS' whole car X-ray scanners and their potential cancer risks. The story focuses on the Z Portal scanner, which appears to be a stationary version of the older Z Backscatter Vans. The story provides interesting pictures of the device and the images it produces, but it also raises important questions about the devices' cancer risks. The average energy of the X-ray beam used is three times that used in a CT scan, which could be big trouble for vehicle passengers and drivers should a vehicle stop in mid-scan. Some studies show the risk for cancer from CT scans can be quite high. Worse still, the DHS estimates of the Z Portal's radiation dosage are likely to be several orders of magnitude too low. 'Society will pay a huge price in cancer because of this,' according to one scientist."

By the way;
They have these in mobile vans that have been used to C-Ray people's homes as the truck drives down the road. .

[WA6TKD]

Some studies show the risk for cancer from CT scans can be quite high.

Some? What do the 'other' studies show, that the risk can be quite low?


I'm not planning on crossing any more borders and my last airplane trip was like 10 years ago so I don't have any real strong feelings or fears on this. However on reading that OverTheGeicoE paragraph, it just seems very partisan and I smell a strong odor of agenda.

What happen to just reporting the facts, the data, and leave out the opinions, innuendos, and biases? Why can't they just publish the actual radiation exposure value? Then we can compare that to flying at 30,000 feet in a jet airliner, or living in Denver at 5K feet. We are Hams, we understand numbers and can do some math. We are use to making value judgments based on data, numbers, and measurements. It's how we select our rigs and antennas. To me that article sounds like it was written just to scare the near illiterate. Without seeing any data, I will hold off on the fear and reserve my judgment. However I am no fan of the Department of Homeland Security, what a waste of the national treasure.

[AF6LJ]

Some? What do the 'other' studies show, that the risk can be quite low?


I'm not planning on crossing any more borders and my last airplane trip was like 10 years ago so I don't have any real strong feelings or fears on this. However on reading that OverTheGeicoE paragraph, it just seems very partisan and I smell a strong odor of agenda.

What happen to just reporting the facts, the data, and leave out the opinions, innuendos, and biases? Why can't they just publish the actual radiation exposure value? Then we can compare that to flying at 30,000 feet in a jet airliner, or living in Denver at 5K feet. We are Hams, we understand numbers and can do some math. We are use to making value judgments based on data, numbers, and measurements. It's how we select our rigs and antennas. To me that article sounds like it was written just to scare the near illiterate. Without seeing any data, I will hold off on the fear and reserve my judgment. However I am no fan of the Department of Homeland Security, what a waste of the national treasure.

The X-Rays are strong enough to see what's in the trunk of a car, the closed trunk...
Do you think the radiation is safe?

[NA0AA]

Anything that can see inside a packed semi-truck will give you a very [un]healthy dose of x-rays. I really don't understand how this can even be considered as safe or legal in the USA. There are passive scanners that will detect nuclear materials and other passive scanners for explosives and thermal passive for visual, plus radar.

I just don't understand after all these years of increasing radiation safety across the country [remember fluorscope shoe fitting?, those were SAFE eh?], that we are so willing to abandon it to 'save us from terrorists'. We have an open country, and anyone wanting to do us harm is going to figure out how to do so. These security theatre measures hurt us more than they help.

If they need to insepect these trucks then damnit, open 'em up and do your job, Customs and Immigration! They are taking the lazy way out rather than do their actual job. If the technology is that great, then FIRE ALL OF 'em and use automatic scanner systems instead. Save us bucks.

[WA4OTD]

Scan away, what is safe is always up to debate. Think about lead paint that was used for years. Or watch an old movie like 12 angry men and marvel the 12 men in a sequestered room all smoke. The "norm" is always changing.


If you come into our border we need to know what is going on.

[AF6LJ]

Anything that can see inside a packed semi-truck will give you a very [un]healthy dose of x-rays. I really don't understand how this can even be considered as safe or legal in the USA. There are passive scanners that will detect nuclear materials and other passive scanners for explosives and thermal passive for visual, plus radar.

I just don't understand after all these years of increasing radiation safety across the country [remember fluorscope shoe fitting?, those were SAFE eh?], that we are so willing to abandon it to 'save us from terrorists'. We have an open country, and anyone wanting to do us harm is going to figure out how to do so. These security theatre measures hurt us more than they help.

If they need to insepect these trucks then damnit, open 'em up and do your job, Customs and Immigration! They are taking the lazy way out rather than do their actual job. If the technology is that great, then FIRE ALL OF 'em and use automatic scanner systems instead. Save us bucks.

Safety?
They are the government they sent our boys and girls over with DU rounds and something like 600000 of them are terminally ill from it.

In your heart of hearts; do you really believe the government gives a tinker's damn for the safety of We The People??

I don't, I know better.

[WA6TKD]

They are the government they sent our boys and girls over with DU rounds and something like 600000 of them are terminally ill from it.

I suspect that would be true only if they stood in front of the things firing those rounds.

You have a credible source for that terminally ill count from DU exposure? As Carl Sagan said "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" Please don't say "everyone knows that's true", because I've never heard that claim before and I watch and read a sizable amount of news from many sources.

From Wikipeda:

The World Health Organization, the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations which is responsible for setting health research norms and standards, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends, states that no risk of reproductive, developmental, or carcinogenic effects have been reported in humans due to DU exposure.^[11][12]

[N8YX]

Your tax dollars at work.

[KC8VWM]

I don't understand why we need them.. Gee, how did they ever cope before without this equipment in the past, for what? ..a million years?

...Suddenly! everything they did before this equipment was ever introduced doesn't work anymore?

Hopefully, they will give people cancer using this equipment seems to be the objective. Of course, hmmph, all this is done in the interest of national security blah blah blah... We might as well give up now, if this cancer causing machine is what it takes to "protect" ourselves from so called harm.

[N4AUD]

a tinker's damn

The expression is actually "a tinker's dam."