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by toolate 5692 days ago
You went through a machine which took photos of your naked body without your knowledge and you don't see a problem with that?

I went through a machine in Amsterdam last year and was super pissed when I realised, after going through, what it was. I'm not planning to opt out whenever possible.

2 comments

I am more worried with the radiation. The volume of the body that's exposed to the radiation is smaller and that makes the energy absorbed per volume much higher. Since I plan to have kids soon, I really don't want to be exposed to X-rays.
The volume of the body that's exposed to the radiation is smaller and that makes the energy absorbed per volume much higher.

Much higher than what?

I think the health risks are probably overplayed. I've only seen one article quoting an expert, David Brenner, and that seemed somewhat out of context. He points out that the primary risk is going to be skin cancer and problems for people with certain genetic syndromes that are hypersensitive to radiation, like ataxia-telangiectasia.

These machines don't come anywhere near producing the doses necessary to cause temporary or permanent sterility in males (0.5 Gy and 6.0 Gy) or females (2-12 Gy). 1 Gy = 1 J/kg. But more importantly, the radiation isn't energetic enough to penetrate to your gonads, that's why it's suited for backscatter imaging.

The privacy, etc, is a whole different issue...

"You went through a machine which took photos of your naked body without your knowledge and you don't see a problem with that?"

To be honest: No - don't see a problem with that.