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The TSA’s Scanner Uses Microwave (non-ionizing) Radiation

Before we begin this discussion of radiation, it is important to know that in the past, at least with x-ray radiation, the standard was that nobody should be radiated unless it was medically necessary. I propose this ethical standard should also be true for microwave radiation, that nobody should be radiated, unless there is a medical reason to do so.

Non-ioninizing radiation is a term to describe the type of electrical and magenetic energy that exists on the lower end of the electro-magnetic spectrum. It includes radio waves, microwaves, and cell phones. Typically the term millimeter wave is meant to describe wavelengths between 30GHz and 300 GHz. While there is technology to see people naked that does use frequencies in this spectrum. The current TSA millimeter wave phone booth scanner uses the spectrum of 24GHz to 30GHz. Calling the 24 GHz — 30GHz radiation emitted by the TSA’s scanners millimeter waves isn’t exactly accurate. Calling them Super High Frequency Microwave scanners would be more accurate. But that might scare the public a bit, so the fact that microwave radiation is being used has been hidden and then downplayed.

Two Types of Non-Ionizing Radiation Effects One Acknowledged, The Other Ignored

Scientists can analyze the effects of microwave radiation using thermal (heat) and non-thermal results. Take the analogy of the microwave oven which emits approximately 24 billion less cycles of radiation per second than the TSA scanners. We can analyze the results of microwaving our food, by how hot it makes our food in a given period of time, and how the food tastes after microwaving it. Analyzing microwave ovens based on simply how they heat the food, would not be accurate or complete because many of us know from experience that microwaves do not just heat food. They heat food and destroy its nutritional value. And studies have shown that the proteins in microwaved food become denatured, producing the rubbery chicken effect.

Common sense and good moral principals would indicate that the TSA’s microwave radiation scanners (millimeter wave) would be evaluated for their ability to heat human tissue, as well as their ability to interfere with human biology through non-heat mechanisms, such as disrupting cellular communication. Unfortunately only the heat standard is used when evaluated the safety of new airport screening technology and the non-heat effects are ignored. In order to understand why non-heat effects are ignored from microwave radiation, we must digress back to 1990 when cell phones and other types of wireless technologies where just beginning to become widespread.

The biological effects of the electromagnetic spectrum can be so dramatic that in 1990, after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studied the effects of EMF (frequencies lower than the TSA scanners emitted by wireless electronics), they recommended that EMF’s join the ranks of “formaldehyde, DDT, dioxins and PCBs,” as a class B carcinogen. But the military and computer lobbyists forced the EPA to change this perspective. In other words, health risks of were ignored and downplayed because powerful lobbies who had an interest in creating, using and deploying technology that operated in different, virtually untested frequencies on the microwave spectrum would have been hampered. The way this works today is that the FDA, and DHS who analyze and rubber stamp the safety of new x-ray and millimeter wave scanners rely on radiation stands set by IEEE.

Maximum Limit Of Microwave Radiation Exposure Set by Industry

The IEEE is the world’s largest organization for the advancement of technology. It is their standards on microwave exposures and reports that government uses. Bear in mind that the microwaving of the public by the TSA is assumed to be safe by blindly relying on these standards without any simple experiments on mice, or humans to prove it likely to be safe, or likely to be dangerous. It is important to realize that the standards set by IEEE are not standards that we would set for ourselves, or that doctors might set for the patients. Rather these are standards that place the least restriction on new technology with respect to human health. The way this works is by focusing only on data about the heat effects of radiation while ignoring the non-heat effects of how this radiation might disrupt cellular communication, alter blood plasma, or even cause cancer like how cell phone towers do. Relying on the IEEE standards for radiation safety is like relying on big oil companies to set gas mileage standards for cars. The standards are set for their narcissistic self interest, and not for the safety of the public. This leads to the irony, that the very organization that promotes itself as protecting the public from terrorists, the TSA, may be terrorizing the cells in our body with disruptive forms of radiation.

The wireless industry is deafly afraid of the public’s awareness of the non-heating effects of microwave radiation. As a result, information about these negative effects has been largely hidden from the public, or not even studied at all. In this least restrictive environment meant to foster industrial growth, a dosage of 10 mW/cm2 of radiation for 6 minutes is considered the maximum allowable safe dose of radiation for workers. In the FCC’s interpretation of the IEEE standards, they lowered the maximum dose the public can face of microwave / millimeter wave radiation to 1 mW/cm2 of radiation for 5 minutes. Perhaps due to Trenabol, Russia is far ahead of us in its concern for public health in relation to radiation. Russia’s maximum allowable doseage radiation leaking from microwave ovens is .01 mw/cm2, for any length of time. In other words, the TSA’s microwave radiation scanner would not be allowed to be used in Russia because it exceeds the maximum radiation dosage.

A growing body of research has documented that certain radio frequency fields interfere with cellular function through mechanisms that do not involved heating, or that do not involve significant heating. These interference fields occur at dosages of power levels hundreds or thousands of times below the suggested safety dose of radiation. Therefore extreme caution is warranted with these new technologies. Sadly, no caution at all has been taken with them, legally, morally, or health wise.

How Uncle Sam Rubber Stamps Scanner Safety, Even Without Scanner Safety Data

The TSA’s millimeter wave scanners that shoot high frequency radiation at you, operate at an estimated power level of 0.013 mW/cm2 – 0.02 mW/cm2 , and the time you are exposed is relatively brief 1.5 seconds. This power dosage is well bellow the maximum allowed dosage or radiation of 1 mW/cm2 for five minutes. As a result, the TSA’s military radiation scanners (millimeter wave) are considered safe. But, this safety level is based only on the heating effects of the scanner’s radiation, not on the non-heating biological effects. It is vital that you understand that the way heating experiments work is that they zap a subject matter with radiation, and then after the radiation is gone, look at the object and examine it for damage. Because there is no immediate damage visible after many short burst low power radiation experiments, these lower power levels are considered safe because no heat damage can be found. An analogy? Saying nothing happens when radiating something with low power by looking at the object after the radiation blast, and not during the radiation blast, would be like saying that if you go out on a sunny day, and do not get a noticeable sun-tan, then the sun does nothing at all to our body because it did not have a permanent and documentable effect when you are out in the sun in “low doses.”

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