“Safe for everyday use”? So was asbestos once…….

I am revisiting my earlier entry about airport passenger security, simply because of the last line of an article in today’s press.

TSA chief John Pistole insists that there is no danger from radiation in the scans and that intensive searches are necessary to prevent increasingly imaginative bombers from boarding planes.

“We want to work with industry to make sure we have the safest machines available. That is the bottom line. They are safe for everyday use,” he told MSNBC television

Really?  And we know this because?  I am old enough to remember many other things that were initially considered “safe” and subsequently found not to be so.  Here’s a few high profile examples!

Anyone heard of cigarettes?  I thought so.  There used to be at least one ad on TV promoting smoking as something to cure that nagging cough.  How about “More doctors smoke Camels”?  They could have at least picked a decent brand!

Thalidomide?  Resulted in over 10,000 human birth defects.

Asbestos?  Once widely used, now a known danger!

Xrays – we are warned not to have too many a year.  Radiologists have to monitor their exposure.  Why?

We have only JUST started introducing these machines.  But we are suddenly 100% sure they are “safe for everyday use”?  Why am I sceptical?

What about very frequent fliers?  What about cabin crew and pilots? Are these safe twice a day? Twice a day once every six months? Twice a day four days in a row? Once a week?  I’d like to see some controlled testing, thanks, before I go floating through one too often.

Are they as safe for developing bodies, such as children or unborn babies?  What about women who may not yet know they are pregnant?

Are we going to see an increase in some form of cancer in 20 or 30 years time?  An increase in birth defects perhaps?

Is anyone asking, or more importantly answering, these questions?