mr president the recent announcement of compulsory back-scatter x-ray technology whole-body scanners at british airports by prime minister gordon brown is an outrage in my view
this is the first time ever that ionising radiation is being forced on people including children and pregnant women and indeed being used widely on healthy humans for non-medical reasons
soft low-energy x-rays actually are more absorbed than the higher-energy cosmic rays you receive whilst flying and are thus more dangerous and not less dangerous to the skin and soft tissues
furthermore diagnostic medical x-rays allow the user the patient the possibility of a lead shielding on their gonads to reduce the total population dose causing dna damage and future genetic mutations not possible with these devices either
as a doctor and frequent air traveller i totally reject this draconian measure for health reasons not to mention privacy and ineffectiveness reasons and i hope that the eu refuses such mandatory measures europe-wide
instead i argue we should bring on israeli-style profiling of passengers
