Scientists on the Bogus Tests "Proving" Airport Scanners Safe

[JohnyCanuck]

In a letter sent to White House, a group of scientists are questioning tests that the TSA is using to claim that full body scanners used at airports are safe. The letter was a response to a letter from the Department of Health and Human Services regarding a letter sent last year by the scientists

The five scientists who signed the letter question why the TSA won't make the scanners available for independent testing by outside scientists.

The professors, from the University of California, San Francisco, and one at Arizona State University, point out several flaws in the tests.

snip

The Johns Hopkins researchers' names have been kept secret, and the report on the tests is so "heavily redacted" that "there is no way to repeat any of these measurements," the scientists wrote.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/05/scientists-on-bogus-tests-proving.html

[SDuderstadt]

1. Wait a minute....

Who are these five scientists?

They are not named in the source, nor are they named in the letter.

[woo me with science]

3. Wow, you got here fast!

:rofl:

[SDuderstadt]

4. It was at the top of the GD list....

Duh.

[Sinistrous]

6. Here are four of the five. These from UCSF.

April 6, 2010

Dr. John P. Holdren

Dear Dr. Holdren:

We, a number of University of California, San Francisco faculty, are writing — see the attached memo — to call your attention to our concerns about the potential serious health risks of the recently adopted whole body back scatter X-ray airport security scanners. This is an urgent situation as these X-ray scanners are rapidly being implemented as a primary screening step for all air travel passengers.

By way of introduction one of us (John Sedat) met you recently when he and his wife Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, a 2009 Nobel Laureate, talked with President Obama last summer. Dr. Sedat is Professor Emeritus in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, with expertise in imaging. He is alo a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The other cosigners include Dr. Marc Shuman, an internationally well known and respected cancer expert and UCSF professor, as well as Drs. David Agard and Robert Stroud, who are UCSF Professors, X-ray crystallographers, imaging experts and NAS members.

Sincerely yours,

John Sedat, Ph.D
David Agard, Ph.D
Marc Shuman, M.D.
Robert Stroud, Ph.D.

Link http://firedoglake.com/letter-from-john-w-sedat-et-al-on-the-dangers-of-tsa-backscatter-scanners/=">here.

[SDuderstadt]

7. Thanks! n/t

[lob1]

2. When my dentist x-rays a tooth, he slaps a lead apron

on me, then he gets the hell out of the room. That's just for a tooth. No one can convince me the TSA x-rays are safe, especially when they offer proof of their safety and it turns out to be gibberish.

[SDuderstadt]

5. "No one can convince me the TSA x-rays are safe"

Of course they won't when you're not open-minded.

You do, of course, realize that you are comparing apples to oranges, right?

[lob1]

8. I'm not comparing apples and oranges, I'm comparing x-rays.

Maybe you can offer proof that TSA scans are safe. I'm not being close minded, I'm waiting for proof to change my mind.

[SDuderstadt]

9. Do you think all x-ray machines are the same?

You words were "no one can convince me...". That is the opposite of open-minded.

[lob1]

10. Well you certainly aren't offering up anything in the way

of proof.

[SDuderstadt]

11. I started by asking you a question...

how is your dentist's x-ray machine like a full body scanner?

[lob1]

12. A glock isn't a .45, but they can both kill you.

Look, if you have some useful information, I'd really like to hear it. But I'm tired of your cute questions.