To: President Donald Trump, The Texas State House, The Texas State Senate, Governor Greg Abbott, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Full body scanners will soon be in Austin Airport within this year.
These body scanners are likely to be highly intrusive showing the outline of people’s private parts and the alternative option is to have a pat-down of these private parts by a TSA agent. It is an unreasonable restriction and a violation to the Fourth Amendment -a violation to basic human rights.
Why is this important?
The petition is about the new radiation scanners at airport that will soon be coming to Austin. I am bothered that I still seem to get liquids and leathermans that are located IN my bag (by accident) through carry-on scanners undetected. Even though TSA hasn't perfected those scanners to make us more safe, they are adding onto it with more expensive machinery, succumbing us to more radiation as well as a violating situation. I wish they would perfect one thing before moving onto a more complicated/expensive/invasive one.
These new radiation scanners that spot everything under your clothing (producing a shiny nude image of everyone) are replacing old-fashioned magnetic scanners. Cancer risks correlate with the number of exposure to radiation, so no dose of radiation is too small to matter. The amount of radiation that you are exposed to is not as much as a doctor’s, BUT the cumulative effect of radiation may take a toll (especially if children 12+ are exposed to this routine at such a young age then continue through their adult years).
If you chose to opt out of being scanned, you will instead have an intimate pat-down from a TSA agent – you end up being touched in places previously reserved for significant others or your Gynecologist/Urologist. When you experience this, you will realize how violating it truly is - I have and it's quite invasive.
These new radiation scanners that spot everything under your clothing (producing a shiny nude image of everyone) are replacing old-fashioned magnetic scanners. Cancer risks correlate with the number of exposure to radiation, so no dose of radiation is too small to matter. The amount of radiation that you are exposed to is not as much as a doctor’s, BUT the cumulative effect of radiation may take a toll (especially if children 12+ are exposed to this routine at such a young age then continue through their adult years).
If you chose to opt out of being scanned, you will instead have an intimate pat-down from a TSA agent – you end up being touched in places previously reserved for significant others or your Gynecologist/Urologist. When you experience this, you will realize how violating it truly is - I have and it's quite invasive.