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[Tyrone Slothrop]

From "a professor at a major research university":

I'm not sure whether the continuing lunatic exploits of the TSA have been driven more by terrorized bureaucrats or greedy lobbyists, but in either case I despair for the future.

I'm a tenured Professor of Theoretical Physics at [a major university], and I've been on the faculty for [several decades]. I'm not sure I agree with everything your physics correspondents have written over the past few days, but I certainly agree fully with one thing: In spite of the nominal radiation limits cited for the xray and submillimeter wave AIT machines, there is absolutely no assurance of the amount of radiation actually delivered to an individual subject. Perhaps if each person were issued a dosimeter print-out or a radiation technician were on the job full-time at each machine, there would be some reason to trust the technology. At present the TSA's attitude seems to be, gee, what a neat technology, let's radiate the entire population and look for problems later. The situation is bizarre, particularly in view of the stringent safety precautions mandated in other parts of American life. Um, thanks, but the radiation machines are not for me or my family.

Much more here.