Body scanners finding plenty of creative uses in U.S.

[Seedersandleechers]

WASHINGTON — If Doug McMakin's latest experiment is successful, it's going to save travelers some time and hassle at the airport someday soon.

They won't have to take off their shoes when they go through security, because a scanner will examine their feet and immediately detect whether they're security risks.

Thanks to McMakin's engineering work at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the same technology already is in use at a handful of malls around the country, where clothing shoppers can step into machines and have their measurements instantly matched with different sizes and brands.

As questions are raised overseas about the safety of full-body scanners, engineers in Washington state are touting machines that they claim are safer and could ease airport lines and spot potential suicide bombers.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/11/132592/body-scanners-finding-plenty-of.html#ixzz1gDLx0XUS

[Fearless]

1. Body scaners... because we all need a bit more cancer.

[Downwinder]

2. How do you treat cancer? With more radiation.

[Fearless]

3. Different radiation. Centralized on the cancer to kill it not on the whole body.

[Magoo48]

5. How do you treat terror?

You abuse your own people, of course.

[Po_d Mainiac]

23. Or chemo..trust me it sucks.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. We know of no side effects at this time

Not saying we will find them either, but a blanket declaration is always a little suspect.

At one point shoe stores had machines that would show your foot inside the shoe. No one believed they posed any kind of risk..no longer.

A pedantic point...

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. Indeed we do not at this time...

And hopefully there aren't any.

[Samba]

18. what cancer?

Though US airports have some x-ray scanner machines (40%) and some of these microwave machines, these going in stores are of the microwave sort.

Then within the microwave sorts there are:

Active - those that send microwaves at you to read the reflections.
Passive - those that don't send microwaves but just take a picture of the microwaves that are coming from you or background microwaves reflecting from you. This sort doesn't add any radiation to what you normally get.

The microwaves used aren't like those of a cell phone or even radar - they are way at the high end of radio waves - almost where infrared light starts.


Would be pretty cool if it meant they'd whip up some custom clothes that fit right - your right shoe is a 10 7/8 EE your left is a 10 3/4 EEE. But I doubt it they will just say shirt is 47 chest 18 neck 33 sleeve - pants 34 waist 32 inseam and then you'll get to the rack and the clothes will still be sized S M L XL.

[Fearless]

19. Radiation of almost any type can cause cancer... it depends on how strong it is or how often you are

exposed to it.

[caraher]

20. True if you meant *ionizing* radiation

Last edited Mon Dec 12, 2011, 09:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Otherwise your blanket statement about "radiation" is baseless. Efforts to link a wide variety of forms of non-ionizing radiation to cancer have yielded, at the very best, a few correlations of dubious statistical significance.

[davsand]

9. They had X-Ray machines in shoe stores years ago. This "new" use of body scanners sounds familiar.

I remember being in Sears and being seriously pissed at my mom for not letting me put my foot in so I could wiggle my toes and see the bones move. They promoted it as a way to fit shoes that would cut down on foot problems in later years.

Sorry, I just don't care enough about the fit of my pants or shirts to use a full body scanner to size me. I am pretty sure I can figure out if it fits or not--all by myself.





Laura

[Sherman A1]

15. Agreed

It's deja vu all over again.

[backscatter712]

10. The shoe store x-ray machine is back!

They got banned the first time around because of the radiation.

The worst of it wasn't received by the customers, but by the shoe-salesmen, who had to work around that machine all the time.

[Eljo_Don]

11. new use for body scanners.

The new body scanner shown in the article has also a new use. The new model is also a teletransporter. If you let them, they will rise the level to it's maximum. Your body will be disintegrated and transmitted to destination airport in less than a minute. They claim that the receiving scanner will be able to integrate your body, but up to now there is no guaranty that that can happen. They are still trying to develop the integration part.

[pansypoo53219]

12. darn.

i barefoot just about 99% of the time. bast part was flying that way. no shoes, meant not having to remover them + all that stupid.

[tawadi]

13. Just a few days ago a report came out entitled 'Lifestyle Changes to Prevent Breast Cancer'

One of the suggestions was limiting unnecessary exposure to medical radiation.

The link: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/755006

"Dr. Hertz-Picciotto's said, 'rein in this indiscriminate use of otherwise excellent diagnostic capabilities and tools. There may be impacts on women's cancer risks over time.' "

I wonder if full-body scanners, over time, also increase cancer risks.

[lbrtbell]

16. And mammograms were one of the sources of radiation listed

Every single woman I've ever known who has had breast cancer also had yearly mammograms. Being that radiation has a cumulative effect, I'm not in the least surprised.

These body scanners are not good news.

[meow2u3]

21. That's how come I refuse to get a mammogram

...despite my doctor pressuring me to get one just because of my age. In this case, the diagnostic tool causes the disease it claims to prevent. If I get breast cancer, it won't be because I put my boobs in an X-ray machine.

[tooeyeten]

14. Can it select the smarter GOP candidate? n/t

[high density]

17. Are we so pressed for time now that we can no longer try on clothes?

Heck, I can go into JC Penney and select 5 different pairs of pants from the same brand, type, and size. The difference would be color and they'd be made in different countries. Country X and Y won't fit, but country Z will fit perfectly.

And as somebody who opts out of the scanner at the airport, I sure as heck am not going to try out one of these machines in the mall.

[Warren Stupidity]

22. Well of course if there is a useful by-product from a fascist program, let's celebrate that!

I will avoid making lampshade references, because that is just a cheap shot.