I recently traveled to Houston for a family renunion and even though it takes a little bit longer, I opted out of the x-ray security scan and got the full pat down. I have had enough x-rays in my life without adding more radiation at an airport. In my view, radiation like other toxins has an accumulative effect on the body.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) claims that backscatter scans are safe. But how do medical professionals personally feel about it?
Many doctors don't opt out of the scans. Dr. Drew Pinsky calls the amount of radiation "inconsequential." However, some researchers question whether the manufacturers' measurements are valid -- the exposure to radiation may actually be 10 times more than what the manufacturers claim.
And Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, takes a pat-down instead of going through a scanner when he travels. Brawley's deputy, Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, has the same opinion.
According to CNN:
"Lichtenfeld says it doesn't necessarily give him great comfort that the TSA says the scans are safe. 'I can still remember getting my feet radiated as a child when I went to the shoe store and they had a machine which could see how my foot fit in the new shoes,' he says. 'We were told then that they were safe, and they were not.'"
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