Airport X-Ray Scanners Part 2: You Decide Who Is The Idiot

I dropped my daughter off at the Detroit airport this morning as she was on her way to a wilderness camping adventure. I want to come back as my daughter. However, reincarnation is not the purpose of this blog post.

I wrote a recent post to you about saying “no” to airport X-ray scanners. I told Jessi about these scanners and I advised her to tell the TSA agent that she did not want to be irradiated. Actually, I told her to tell the agent that she did not want to go into the X-ray scanner machine.
This morning, I forgot to remind Jessi about the X-ray scanner. About 30 minutes later I received a text from her. It said, “When I went through security, I told the agent that I did not want to go through the scanner. He asked ‘why?’ I told him my doctor told me not to go through the X-ray machine. He said, ‘Your doctor is an idiot’.”

I assume that the TSA agent was referring to me as the ‘idiot’. Well, as the idiot involved in the story, I have a differing opinion.
There is no known safe dose of ionizing radiation. None. These scanners use ionizing radiation. The amount of radiation used by these machines is unknown since the data is being hidden by the TSA. In fact, these scanners have not been properly tested to ascertain if they are indeed safe. In fact, there are no plans (that I have seen) to properly test these machines.

There is no doubt that pregnant women and children are more vulnerable to ionizing radiation. I think everybody should avoid these X-ray machines, but pregnant women and children should be exempted from being irradiated.
Just because you are thinking about the consequences of exposing your body to unnecessary ionizing radiation does not make you an idiot. An idiot is one who blindly follows orders from TSA agents who have little understanding about what they are exposing the public to.