Radiation risk from flying trumps body scanners - Health - Health care - More health news - msnbc.com
Amidst protests and rallies over airport security procedures, what's often overlooked is that flying itself dwarfs the radiation doses delivered by the new body scanners.
"Most people are unaware about the fact that there is significant radiation exposure associated with air travel because they are well above the Earth's atmosphere," said Robert J. Barish, a radiological and health physicist in New York City. "You'd get as much radiation in a whole-body scanner as you'd get in two minutes at 30,000 feet."
For casual flyers, there probably isn't much to worry about, Barish said. But flying raises real risks for pilots, flight attendants, and the half a million business travelers who spend much of their time in the air.
The True Cost of the Scanners is purely of economic value.
ReplyDeleteI beleived well trained profilers, and a transparent intelligence is much more productive and effective at preventing terrorism, than expensive, complicated, at risk of breaking-down equipment, which, by the way, subjects us to a scan that saves our data, and forces us through a cattle like turn style with a little dose of radiation as a treat!
These machines are costing the end consumers and business buying these tickets. Add rising fuel costs and airline profitability that is shrinking, and we can easily predict a future with constant airline price hikes. Only the rich will be able to fly in the future!