Flight attendants are reportedly refusing to give their consent to hand over biometric data to the federal government in order to use a new TSA line-skipping system that is being progressively rolled out at airports across the United States. Since 2011, flight attendants and pilots have been able to bypass regular TSA airport security screening…
Back scatter always stuck w/ me as what they are all called, but the desired effect for TSA is the same. Its over reaching and I will come earlier to have the “Enhanced” screening.
And non ionizing radiation does have risks. It can cause cataracts and messes w/ sperm counts. I work with rf, L-band to Ka band we do all we can to not get any exposure.
Everyone should avoid it if they can. PSA from a old school rf guy :)
If you work with L & Ka band then you should know that RF is not cumulative in the same way ionizing radiation is. Yes it causes cataracts and low sperm count at high enough power levels, but it causes these due to local heating, eyes and testicles just happen to be the two most sensitive organs to heat. If you don’t get a high enough dose to cause damage immediately, you didn’t do any damage, and further low doses will not cause a cumulative effect.
The power emitted by mm wave scanners in airports is on the order of milliwatts, not close to enough to cause those issues.
All that said, scanners which expose passengers as if they were undressed, even if it is to a person working in a back room somewhere to flag threats, they are absolutely an over reach and metal detectors and explosive detection swabbing is more than sufficient.