Screenings invade multiple ways

Sat., April 21, 2012

Years ago I worked for a security company under contract to Pan American World Airways to provide airport baggage security. About three years after they went out of business, I was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx, stage 3, with metastasis to the throat. I had to have my entire larynx removed, as a result of which I must now use an artificial larynx to speak.

I don’t know how much my work as a screener contributed to my condition, but I do know that the airline’s management admitted, before they went bankrupt, that they grossly underestimated the harmful effects of repeated X-ray exposure.

Backscatter technology doesn’t reduce the effect or protect passengers. It is simply a new way of invading the body, as well as the privacy of the traveling public. If anything, the risk is much greater.

Victor Buksbazen

Spokane

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