Newly released documents reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intentionally misled the public about the safety of the controversial body scanners used by the TSA at airports. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained documents via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) showing that body scanner technology poses a heightened risk of getting cancer due to dangerous levels of radiation being emitted. Topsecretwriters.com reports: In examining the TSA documents, EPIC discovered that the agency (TSA) “did not perform a ‘quantitative analysis’ of risks and benefits before implementing the body scanner program.” These were some of the concerns that EPIC addressed in its 2011 lawsuit against DHS for the suspension of the body scanner program. That lawsuit resulted in the successful “removal of backscatter X-ray scanners from US airports”. The “backscatter” X-Ray uses “high energy X-rays”. These X-rays penetrate materials more than medical X-rays that are low-energy. In effect, the machine penetrates clothing to reveal the nude body of the person being scanned. This intrusion of individual privacy through such indiscreet imaging of a person’s body and the security flaws in the equipment being used along with the TSA’s ability to store those images indefinitely are components of another EPIC [...]