[jordigh]

I have to fly today, from Canada to Europe. I probably shouldn't be reading stories like these before a flight, but I did, top to bottom, transfixed by the details. I hope I manage to make it through airport "security" without any problem. I'll smile, I'll cooperate. Hell, maybe I'll even step into the radiation machine for the first time in my life if I have to (I also always have opted out).

I hate how scary this whole thing is. I fear it's going to keep getting worse.

[whazor]

Europe and Canada are friendlier than USA.

[jacquesm]

Not that much friendlier and getting worse every time I fly.

[epmaybe]

Sorry you have to go through that. Also, what radiation machine are you referring to? The millimeter wave scanner?

[jordigh]

Yes. Besides the uncertainty about the harmful effects of that radiation, there's also the issue of how they collect and pass around the naked images.

[semi-extrinsic]

> uncertainty about the harmful effects of that radiation

Personally I don't think there is much there to be concerned about. We know these waves penetrate less than 1mm into your skin, and that the only way they can cause damage is by thermal effects. We know it's not ionizing radiation, not by a long shot. I believe getting a sunburn at the beach is far worse.

I think the privacy concerns, and the frequently low efficiacy/high-false-positive rate of these machines are far more cause for concern.

[umanwizard]

How is the comparison to sunburns supposed to make anyone feel better

I go through millimeter wave scanners a few dozen times a year -- getting sunburned that often would dramatically increase your cancer risk.

[semi-extrinsic]

Maybe it's not a good comparison, IDK. The trouble with getting a sunburn is because UV radiation is ionizing, and we know that causes cancer. Even if you don't get sunburnt, frequent unprotected exposure to strong sun increases cancer risk.

Maybe going to the sauna is a better comparison? We don't really have a consistent way of comparing effects of different types of non-ionizing radiation.

[ff10]

Do you have any source of them passing around any images? Are they even able to do that without in-depth knowledge of the system?

[jordigh]

The stories are not hard to find:

https://epic.org/privacy/litigation/apa/tsa/bodyscanner/

I'm pretty sure that even if they couldn't get the actual images out of the machine, they can easily take a picture of the image with their mobile cameras.

[leesalminen]

Couldn't the TSA agent viewing these images take a picture with their smartphone? That's just off the top of my head.

I'm more curious about any research into health effects of millimeter wave scans? My business partner always opts out claiming this but could never provide evidence.

[jordigh]

There is nothing definitive, but in 2006 people thought there might be:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1673553/?reload=true&tp=...

I haven't heard of any conclusive evidence that it doesn't harm either (and how could there be one, since they haven't been used for that long), but why take the risk in the first place

[gnud]

I suspect the in-depth knowledge might consist of 'taking a photo of the screen'.