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Could Full-Body Scans Do More Harm Than Good?

Aired August 31, 2004 - 13:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking stories now in the news. A developing story in Russia to tell you about. Police say at least eight killed, five wounded in a car blast in Moscow, happened just over an hour ago, outside a subway station. No word on whether it is terror-related. We'll bring you more details as we get them.
France is convening crisis talks to try to secure the release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq. The government still refusing to revoke a ban on Islamic head scarves, as demanded by those kidnappers. A group of Muslim scholars in Iraq is calling for the hostages release.

Sadness and shock in Nepal over the killing of 12 Nepalese workers in Iraq. An Islamic Web site posted gruesome images of militants slowly beheading one of the hostages and shooting the other 11. It's the largest mass killing of hostages since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Senator John McCain elicited a wild response from the crowd at the Republican convention last night when he took a jab at Michael Moore, the filmmaker behind the Bush- bashing film "Fahrenheit 9/11."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Not our political opponents, not -- and certainly not -- and certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe...

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Joining us for a little more reaction from the convention site on of course Michael Moore and other things, radio talk show host Neal Boortz and editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovitch.

Gentlemen, good to see you.

Do you have contact. Can you guys hear me OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I hear you, Kyra.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're all ears, all ears.

PHILLIPS: That's taking us back to a different convention, Neal.

All right, I'm curious, Neal Boortz, did you join the booers, or did you bonk the booers on the head?

NEAL BOORTZ, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: You know, I was having dinner at Aaron Burr's Carriage House last night at about the time that this -- you know, I think Michael Moore might be a fun guy to go to a peep show with, but I certainly don't want to listen to political commentary from him.

PHILLIPS: He could have at least, you know, had a nice shave and spit out the gum, don't you think?

BOORTZ: Well, you know, that's part of his act. He's supposed to look like he just got through mating with a grizzly bear, I suppose.

PHILLIPS: That's a disgusting thought.

Mike Luckovich, what a perfect time to bring you in, when we think of your cartoons and the pictures that you draw. Now what's deal about you bumping into Michael Moore on an escalator, or in an elevator, and were you able to fit up there next to him?

MIKE LUCKOVICH, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST: Yes, I was actually heading out to dinner, and I see all this commotion, all these cameras, so I went over and I actually got up on the escalator right next to Michael Moore, and I said, geez, Michael, what the hell are you doing here? And he said, what the hell are you doing here? And so we just followed, my fellow cartoonist and I, followed him and just watched all the commotion, watched him try to get in, and it was just -- it was fabulous.

PHILLIPS: So how were the delegates responding, Mike?

LUCKOVICH: You know, they were -- they quit listening to the person, the poor chump at the podium, because they all started looking up at him and pointing.

And it was so fun. I saw this one woman she -- a lot of these people have funny hats, and she was wearing like a big flag hat. It look like it had impaled on her head. And she was looking up, pointing at him, and it was just great. And I love the picture in the papers today, Michael Moore giving the loser sign as he acknowledges the crowd. So it was fun.

PHILLIPS: Neal, why would John McCain even mention, you know, this filmmaker in his speech. I mean, obviously, he calls him disingenuous, but why bring more attention to him? Why not just blow right past it an move on?

BOORTZ: Obviously, he's getting a cut. He probably made Michael Moore 20 more million dollars last night, so they'll meet a couple of months from now, and Michael will say, hey, John, thanks, pal, and you know, here's your percentage.

PHILLIPS: I can see the next documentary.

BOORTZ: Oh, listen, let's give Michael Moore credit, he is a marvelously entertaining filmmaker. The truth ain't in him, but he can make a film, and he can entertain.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's talk about 9/11. Today's cartoon, Mike -- let's start there. Show us your cartoon that came out in the "AJC" today.

LUCKOVICH: All right, this is the cartoon, it's a two-panel cartoon. The first panel, an aide is saying to Bush go up there and remind Americans of your actions on 9/11, and Bush says, OK. In the second panel, you see he's at the podium, and he's reading "My Pet Goat, Once Upon a Time."

BOORTZ: Having flash backs.

LUCKOVICH: Going back to the Michael Moore film, that excruciating seven minutes where you can see on his face, he's thinking what the heck am I going to do?

BOORTZ: Oh, Mike. Oh, jeez.

LUCKOVICH: Yes, Neal?

PHILLIPS: Neal, you don't like his cartoon?

BOORTZ: That is -- you know, I have to give credit to my dear wife this morning. Our hotel room overlooks Ground Zero, OK? She's going home tonight, abandoning me. And I said, Donna, there's ghosts out there, I'm going to be alone here tonight. She said, you're right, they are, but they're not here to hurt you; they're here to remind you, and that's why I think I have the best hotel room in New York for this event, because every time I walk to the window, I see why this election is so important.

PHILLIPS: Wow, you're getting pretty touchy-feely, Neal. I'm getting teary. This is so not like you. I'm getting nervous.

BOORTZ: My wife gets the credit for that, not me.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about that for a minute. There was a lot of criticism, a lot of people -- when the ads first came out, talking about 9/11, you saw the shots of Ground Zero. The president got ripped for that in many ways, saying that he's exploiting 9/11, but then we saw so much of it last night, from the tributes to the theme to the topics to the videotapes.

LUCKOVICH: But, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes, Mike.

LUCKOVICH: Kyra, that's all they've got. Everything that bush has touched in the last four years has -- how shall I say this? Turned to poop. And so they have to keep talking about that brief moment where he stood on the rubble in 9/11. That's the only really fond memories that Americans have -- the only thing he seemed to have done right.

And you know, even the speakers, they keep saying, we're safer because of Bush going into Iraq, when Al Qaeda was the one that attacked us. We're in a quagmire there. There's actually a little illuminated sign behind the podium that says speaker must keep an straight face. So, you know, I...

PHILLIPS: I want to see that sign.

BOORTZ: Well, that obviously doesn't apply to cartoonists. You know, that's all they've got.

Well, OK, let's just say for the sake of argument that 9/11, the war against terrorism is all George Bush has. At least it's current. What does John Kerry have? Four months in Vietnam, 35 years ago. Since then, amnesia. Nothing, except for he can wind surf. Wow.

PHILLIPS: Hey, come on, he's a good skier, he's a good wind surfer. Come on, Neal.

BOORTZ: Yes, and snowboarder. OK, so you know, he's a shredder, and he belongs where the rest of them do -- off my slope.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, you know what, you're being very uncompassionate, shall we say, when tonight's theme is supposed to be compassionate, and compassion.

Luckovich, is this going to be provide you a little fodder for your cartoons tomorrow?

LUCKOVICH: Owe, sure, I mean, it's the moderate face. It was like the convention in 2000 with the Republicans. One night they had all the African-Americans, various minorities up there. The hall itself was basically all white people, but they had all these minorities up there. It was like a minstrel show. And so that's what a cartoonist loves, is to have these enormous contrasts to really point out, and to try and show people what's actually going on.

BOORTZ: Well, the difference between a Democrat and Republican, when it's time to show compassion, a Republican reaches into a Republican's pocket to show compassion. So does the Democrat. Democrats love to show their compassion by spending other people's money. How easy is that?

LUCKOVICH: Hey, wait, Bush is the biggest spending president since LBJ. How can conservatives say this guy -- he's a mess, he is a mess.

BOORTZ: OK, now, I'll give him the big spending. But most of the spending has been in preparation for and fighting for and preparing for the next terrorist attack. When it comes to discretionary defense -- or discretionary domestic spending, George Bush doesn't hold a candle to John Kerry...

PHILLIPS: All right, gentlemen, real quickly, real quickly, Arnold Schwarzenegger, OK, three major broadcast networks are going to carry Schwarzenegger's speech tonight. Now as you know, it didn't happen with Giuliani and McCain. What do you guys think? Is this about ratings, or is this a conspiracy, like so many critics are saying?

LUCKOVICH: It's about ratings.

BOORTZ: Go ahead.

LUCKOVICH: He's going to do that, I'm going to pump you up, you know, the Dana Carey thing -- Dana Carvey thing. And people will be watching. It'll be fun. It'll be interesting to see how he embraces Bush, because they're so different on so many issues.

PHILLIPS: That "Saturday Night Live" parody was last night, though -- Neal.

BOORTZ: He's a star. He's popular. And I'll take credit for it, because when he came here from Austria, I was one of the first people to interview him in this country, so I hope he'll single me out for credit for that.

PHILLIPS: Neal Boortz, Arnold Schwarzenegger's agent. Mike Luckovich, we'll look for that cartoons. Gentlemen, both very compassionate men, thank you so much.

BOORTZ: Oh, yes.

LUCKOVICH: You're welcome, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, All this weekend during the convention, if you're away from your TV, of course you can tune us in. Carol Costello and I will be anchoring complete coverage of the RNC on CNN Radio, a number of affiliates across the U.S. -- 8:00-11:00. You can also go on to CNN.com and catch the Web-stream.

O'BRIEN: How do you find out what station it's on? Just curious.

PHILLIPS: Do you know what, do you know how many times I have contacted CNNradio.com and asked them that question?

O'BRIEN: I was in the car last night, all last night.

PHILLIPS: And were you searching?

O'BRIEN: Seek, seek, seek -- I never found it.

PHILLIPS: WSB.

O'BRIEN: WSB, OK.

PHILLIPS: Yes, Write that down.

O'BRIEN: I thought I got the Braves' game. I apologize. My mistake.

PHILLIPS: That's probably better, so it's OK.

O'BRIEN: I you had one of those full body scans, you might be in for a real scare. Turns out all that radiation could put you at risk. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: They're designed to save your life. But could full- body scans being doing more harm than good?

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen with more on that.

Hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

You know, these are very enticing. You see ads that say, we're going to scan your entire body and we're going to find out if maybe there's some cancer that you're not feeling quite yet, or perhaps you have heart disease that isn't symptomatic yet, and that has enticed many people to get these full body scans. So if you've got an extra $1,000, some people have decided to go ahead and give it a try.

But there's a new study. Researchers at Columbia University looked at the amount of radiation that people get when they get one of these, or when they get them year after year, as some people do; they get their annual full-body scan.

And what they found is that there is indeed a significant increase in radiation. And while that increase is not necessarily so gigantic, they said it is about the same amount of radiation that you see that you see that would put you at a higher risk for cancer. Does it increase your risk of cancer astronomically? No, it doesn't, but they say why would you want to take any -- some doctors would say, why would you want any increased risk of cancer, unless there was a reason to?

O'BRIEN: Good point. All right, now, if you want one of these things, do you have to call your doctor and get a prescription, or do you go up to the scanners 'r' us and present yourself?

COHEN: You plunk down some money. They probably want to see that first, $1,000. And then they will scan your body, and you don't need a doctor, and that sort of get to the heart of the matter here. What many doctors will tell you is, if we think there's some reason you need to have a part of your body scanned, let's say a woman find a lump in her breast, we'll send you to get that part of your body scanned. Most doctors will say, you don't need just this sort of full-body scan, just in case, maybe there might be something. Doctors like to go on more than that, more just a maybe, because you are getting this additional radiation.

O'BRIEN: But surely there's the potential for some good to come out of these things, right?

COHEN: Yes, absolutely. We do have to say that, there indeed have been some stories of people who did decide to go get a full-body scan, and they found some cancer, or some other problem that they would never have found otherwise, or at least that's what they say, that they weren't having any symptoms, there was no reason to check that particular part of their body. So if you did have a full-body scan, if you chose to do it, maybe you would be one of those people.

But maybe you would be one of those people where they find a false positive report. In other words, the scan shows that maybe something is wrong, and so you have a dozen other tests to see if something is wrong and it wasn't, and so you've now got scared; you've had to pay for all these extra tests, nothing was wrong, and you had the extra radiation.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, Elizabeth Cohen, appreciate it.

COHEN: Thanks.

O'BRIEN: Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, now, a side of the Republican convention you won't see anywhere else.

O'BRIEN: Our intrepid Jeanne Moos to her cameras to the mean streets of New York, tackling issues like, do elephants really have the right to break away from the Republican Party.

PHILLIPS: Here she is with the unconventional details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Minicam in hand, here's looking through the lighter side of the lens. It's definitely the Republicans' show. But the protesters tried to steal it with antics like dressing up as elephants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are withdrawing our image from the Republican Party.

MOOS: And sending aerial messages formed by humans lying end to end in Central Park.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Using their bodies to express liberty.

MOOS: This tearful Statue of Liberty was created by a group called Code Pink. So who is this guy wearing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, look at the tag, dude. I don't know. What does it say?

MOOS: Compare that with the Texas delegation outfitted from head to booted toe with Bush 2004 stitched into the leather. Their outfits made them targets for protesters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said a few of those one syllable words that I don't like to repeat.

MOOS: Inside Madison Square Garden the delegates chanted.

UNIDENTIFIED DELEGATES: Four more years! Four more years! MOOS: And it felt like it took four years to navigate all the security to get in.

(on camera): Christmas flowers!

(voice-over): Vehicles had to enter the frozen zone through corrals so they'd be penned in while being checked. Sally ports, they call these things.

(on camera): Why is it called a sally port? Who was Sally?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea. I can't confirm or deny any of that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn't there a French word to move or to go sally.

MOOS (voice-over): As in to sally forth. The dictionary defines sally port as a gate in a fortified place for use by troops. And check out what the fire department is using -- the littlest fire engine on its maiden trip, equipped with high pressure hose and cup holders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does not come with a ladder, no. It's -- they can...

MOOS (on camera): Not even a stepstool?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nope.

MOOS (voice-over): But all the precautions haven't put a damper on the delegates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We went over and asked for leis from Hawaii. And we thought we needed to get laid at the convention.

MOOS: She almost sounds like a Democrat.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That's some racy GOP humor there, I should say.

PHILLIPS: Strong laugh.

Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM...

O'BRIEN: New planets in the news today. How you find them, what it all means. Could there be someone out there? LIVE FROM goes outside the solar system, after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired August 31, 2004 - 13:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking stories now in the news. A developing story in Russia to tell you about. Police say at least eight killed, five wounded in a car blast in Moscow, happened just over an hour ago, outside a subway station. No word on whether it is terror-related. We'll bring you more details as we get them.
France is convening crisis talks to try to secure the release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq. The government still refusing to revoke a ban on Islamic head scarves, as demanded by those kidnappers. A group of Muslim scholars in Iraq is calling for the hostages release.

Sadness and shock in Nepal over the killing of 12 Nepalese workers in Iraq. An Islamic Web site posted gruesome images of militants slowly beheading one of the hostages and shooting the other 11. It's the largest mass killing of hostages since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Senator John McCain elicited a wild response from the crowd at the Republican convention last night when he took a jab at Michael Moore, the filmmaker behind the Bush- bashing film "Fahrenheit 9/11."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Not our political opponents, not -- and certainly not -- and certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe...

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Joining us for a little more reaction from the convention site on of course Michael Moore and other things, radio talk show host Neal Boortz and editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovitch.

Gentlemen, good to see you.

Do you have contact. Can you guys hear me OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I hear you, Kyra.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're all ears, all ears.

PHILLIPS: That's taking us back to a different convention, Neal.

All right, I'm curious, Neal Boortz, did you join the booers, or did you bonk the booers on the head?

NEAL BOORTZ, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: You know, I was having dinner at Aaron Burr's Carriage House last night at about the time that this -- you know, I think Michael Moore might be a fun guy to go to a peep show with, but I certainly don't want to listen to political commentary from him.

PHILLIPS: He could have at least, you know, had a nice shave and spit out the gum, don't you think?

BOORTZ: Well, you know, that's part of his act. He's supposed to look like he just got through mating with a grizzly bear, I suppose.

PHILLIPS: That's a disgusting thought.

Mike Luckovich, what a perfect time to bring you in, when we think of your cartoons and the pictures that you draw. Now what's deal about you bumping into Michael Moore on an escalator, or in an elevator, and were you able to fit up there next to him?

MIKE LUCKOVICH, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST: Yes, I was actually heading out to dinner, and I see all this commotion, all these cameras, so I went over and I actually got up on the escalator right next to Michael Moore, and I said, geez, Michael, what the hell are you doing here? And he said, what the hell are you doing here? And so we just followed, my fellow cartoonist and I, followed him and just watched all the commotion, watched him try to get in, and it was just -- it was fabulous.

PHILLIPS: So how were the delegates responding, Mike?

LUCKOVICH: You know, they were -- they quit listening to the person, the poor chump at the podium, because they all started looking up at him and pointing.

And it was so fun. I saw this one woman she -- a lot of these people have funny hats, and she was wearing like a big flag hat. It look like it had impaled on her head. And she was looking up, pointing at him, and it was just great. And I love the picture in the papers today, Michael Moore giving the loser sign as he acknowledges the crowd. So it was fun.

PHILLIPS: Neal, why would John McCain even mention, you know, this filmmaker in his speech. I mean, obviously, he calls him disingenuous, but why bring more attention to him? Why not just blow right past it an move on?

BOORTZ: Obviously, he's getting a cut. He probably made Michael Moore 20 more million dollars last night, so they'll meet a couple of months from now, and Michael will say, hey, John, thanks, pal, and you know, here's your percentage.

PHILLIPS: I can see the next documentary.

BOORTZ: Oh, listen, let's give Michael Moore credit, he is a marvelously entertaining filmmaker. The truth ain't in him, but he can make a film, and he can entertain.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's talk about 9/11. Today's cartoon, Mike -- let's start there. Show us your cartoon that came out in the "AJC" today.

LUCKOVICH: All right, this is the cartoon, it's a two-panel cartoon. The first panel, an aide is saying to Bush go up there and remind Americans of your actions on 9/11, and Bush says, OK. In the second panel, you see he's at the podium, and he's reading "My Pet Goat, Once Upon a Time."

BOORTZ: Having flash backs.

LUCKOVICH: Going back to the Michael Moore film, that excruciating seven minutes where you can see on his face, he's thinking what the heck am I going to do?

BOORTZ: Oh, Mike. Oh, jeez.

LUCKOVICH: Yes, Neal?

PHILLIPS: Neal, you don't like his cartoon?

BOORTZ: That is -- you know, I have to give credit to my dear wife this morning. Our hotel room overlooks Ground Zero, OK? She's going home tonight, abandoning me. And I said, Donna, there's ghosts out there, I'm going to be alone here tonight. She said, you're right, they are, but they're not here to hurt you; they're here to remind you, and that's why I think I have the best hotel room in New York for this event, because every time I walk to the window, I see why this election is so important.

PHILLIPS: Wow, you're getting pretty touchy-feely, Neal. I'm getting teary. This is so not like you. I'm getting nervous.

BOORTZ: My wife gets the credit for that, not me.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about that for a minute. There was a lot of criticism, a lot of people -- when the ads first came out, talking about 9/11, you saw the shots of Ground Zero. The president got ripped for that in many ways, saying that he's exploiting 9/11, but then we saw so much of it last night, from the tributes to the theme to the topics to the videotapes.

LUCKOVICH: But, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes, Mike.

LUCKOVICH: Kyra, that's all they've got. Everything that bush has touched in the last four years has -- how shall I say this? Turned to poop. And so they have to keep talking about that brief moment where he stood on the rubble in 9/11. That's the only really fond memories that Americans have -- the only thing he seemed to have done right.

And you know, even the speakers, they keep saying, we're safer because of Bush going into Iraq, when Al Qaeda was the one that attacked us. We're in a quagmire there. There's actually a little illuminated sign behind the podium that says speaker must keep an straight face. So, you know, I...

PHILLIPS: I want to see that sign.

BOORTZ: Well, that obviously doesn't apply to cartoonists. You know, that's all they've got.

Well, OK, let's just say for the sake of argument that 9/11, the war against terrorism is all George Bush has. At least it's current. What does John Kerry have? Four months in Vietnam, 35 years ago. Since then, amnesia. Nothing, except for he can wind surf. Wow.

PHILLIPS: Hey, come on, he's a good skier, he's a good wind surfer. Come on, Neal.

BOORTZ: Yes, and snowboarder. OK, so you know, he's a shredder, and he belongs where the rest of them do -- off my slope.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, you know what, you're being very uncompassionate, shall we say, when tonight's theme is supposed to be compassionate, and compassion.

Luckovich, is this going to be provide you a little fodder for your cartoons tomorrow?

LUCKOVICH: Owe, sure, I mean, it's the moderate face. It was like the convention in 2000 with the Republicans. One night they had all the African-Americans, various minorities up there. The hall itself was basically all white people, but they had all these minorities up there. It was like a minstrel show. And so that's what a cartoonist loves, is to have these enormous contrasts to really point out, and to try and show people what's actually going on.

BOORTZ: Well, the difference between a Democrat and Republican, when it's time to show compassion, a Republican reaches into a Republican's pocket to show compassion. So does the Democrat. Democrats love to show their compassion by spending other people's money. How easy is that?

LUCKOVICH: Hey, wait, Bush is the biggest spending president since LBJ. How can conservatives say this guy -- he's a mess, he is a mess.

BOORTZ: OK, now, I'll give him the big spending. But most of the spending has been in preparation for and fighting for and preparing for the next terrorist attack. When it comes to discretionary defense -- or discretionary domestic spending, George Bush doesn't hold a candle to John Kerry...

PHILLIPS: All right, gentlemen, real quickly, real quickly, Arnold Schwarzenegger, OK, three major broadcast networks are going to carry Schwarzenegger's speech tonight. Now as you know, it didn't happen with Giuliani and McCain. What do you guys think? Is this about ratings, or is this a conspiracy, like so many critics are saying?

LUCKOVICH: It's about ratings.

BOORTZ: Go ahead.

LUCKOVICH: He's going to do that, I'm going to pump you up, you know, the Dana Carey thing -- Dana Carvey thing. And people will be watching. It'll be fun. It'll be interesting to see how he embraces Bush, because they're so different on so many issues.

PHILLIPS: That "Saturday Night Live" parody was last night, though -- Neal.

BOORTZ: He's a star. He's popular. And I'll take credit for it, because when he came here from Austria, I was one of the first people to interview him in this country, so I hope he'll single me out for credit for that.

PHILLIPS: Neal Boortz, Arnold Schwarzenegger's agent. Mike Luckovich, we'll look for that cartoons. Gentlemen, both very compassionate men, thank you so much.

BOORTZ: Oh, yes.

LUCKOVICH: You're welcome, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, All this weekend during the convention, if you're away from your TV, of course you can tune us in. Carol Costello and I will be anchoring complete coverage of the RNC on CNN Radio, a number of affiliates across the U.S. -- 8:00-11:00. You can also go on to CNN.com and catch the Web-stream.

O'BRIEN: How do you find out what station it's on? Just curious.

PHILLIPS: Do you know what, do you know how many times I have contacted CNNradio.com and asked them that question?

O'BRIEN: I was in the car last night, all last night.

PHILLIPS: And were you searching?

O'BRIEN: Seek, seek, seek -- I never found it.

PHILLIPS: WSB.

O'BRIEN: WSB, OK.

PHILLIPS: Yes, Write that down.

O'BRIEN: I thought I got the Braves' game. I apologize. My mistake.

PHILLIPS: That's probably better, so it's OK.

O'BRIEN: I you had one of those full body scans, you might be in for a real scare. Turns out all that radiation could put you at risk. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: They're designed to save your life. But could full- body scans being doing more harm than good?

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen with more on that.

Hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

You know, these are very enticing. You see ads that say, we're going to scan your entire body and we're going to find out if maybe there's some cancer that you're not feeling quite yet, or perhaps you have heart disease that isn't symptomatic yet, and that has enticed many people to get these full body scans. So if you've got an extra $1,000, some people have decided to go ahead and give it a try.

But there's a new study. Researchers at Columbia University looked at the amount of radiation that people get when they get one of these, or when they get them year after year, as some people do; they get their annual full-body scan.

And what they found is that there is indeed a significant increase in radiation. And while that increase is not necessarily so gigantic, they said it is about the same amount of radiation that you see that you see that would put you at a higher risk for cancer. Does it increase your risk of cancer astronomically? No, it doesn't, but they say why would you want to take any -- some doctors would say, why would you want any increased risk of cancer, unless there was a reason to?

O'BRIEN: Good point. All right, now, if you want one of these things, do you have to call your doctor and get a prescription, or do you go up to the scanners 'r' us and present yourself?

COHEN: You plunk down some money. They probably want to see that first, $1,000. And then they will scan your body, and you don't need a doctor, and that sort of get to the heart of the matter here. What many doctors will tell you is, if we think there's some reason you need to have a part of your body scanned, let's say a woman find a lump in her breast, we'll send you to get that part of your body scanned. Most doctors will say, you don't need just this sort of full-body scan, just in case, maybe there might be something. Doctors like to go on more than that, more just a maybe, because you are getting this additional radiation.

O'BRIEN: But surely there's the potential for some good to come out of these things, right?

COHEN: Yes, absolutely. We do have to say that, there indeed have been some stories of people who did decide to go get a full-body scan, and they found some cancer, or some other problem that they would never have found otherwise, or at least that's what they say, that they weren't having any symptoms, there was no reason to check that particular part of their body. So if you did have a full-body scan, if you chose to do it, maybe you would be one of those people.

But maybe you would be one of those people where they find a false positive report. In other words, the scan shows that maybe something is wrong, and so you have a dozen other tests to see if something is wrong and it wasn't, and so you've now got scared; you've had to pay for all these extra tests, nothing was wrong, and you had the extra radiation.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, Elizabeth Cohen, appreciate it.

COHEN: Thanks.

O'BRIEN: Back with more in a moment.

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PHILLIPS: Well, now, a side of the Republican convention you won't see anywhere else.

O'BRIEN: Our intrepid Jeanne Moos to her cameras to the mean streets of New York, tackling issues like, do elephants really have the right to break away from the Republican Party.

PHILLIPS: Here she is with the unconventional details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Minicam in hand, here's looking through the lighter side of the lens. It's definitely the Republicans' show. But the protesters tried to steal it with antics like dressing up as elephants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are withdrawing our image from the Republican Party.

MOOS: And sending aerial messages formed by humans lying end to end in Central Park.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Using their bodies to express liberty.

MOOS: This tearful Statue of Liberty was created by a group called Code Pink. So who is this guy wearing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, look at the tag, dude. I don't know. What does it say?

MOOS: Compare that with the Texas delegation outfitted from head to booted toe with Bush 2004 stitched into the leather. Their outfits made them targets for protesters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said a few of those one syllable words that I don't like to repeat.

MOOS: Inside Madison Square Garden the delegates chanted.

UNIDENTIFIED DELEGATES: Four more years! Four more years! MOOS: And it felt like it took four years to navigate all the security to get in.

(on camera): Christmas flowers!

(voice-over): Vehicles had to enter the frozen zone through corrals so they'd be penned in while being checked. Sally ports, they call these things.

(on camera): Why is it called a sally port? Who was Sally?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea. I can't confirm or deny any of that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn't there a French word to move or to go sally.

MOOS (voice-over): As in to sally forth. The dictionary defines sally port as a gate in a fortified place for use by troops. And check out what the fire department is using -- the littlest fire engine on its maiden trip, equipped with high pressure hose and cup holders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does not come with a ladder, no. It's -- they can...

MOOS (on camera): Not even a stepstool?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nope.

MOOS (voice-over): But all the precautions haven't put a damper on the delegates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We went over and asked for leis from Hawaii. And we thought we needed to get laid at the convention.

MOOS: She almost sounds like a Democrat.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That's some racy GOP humor there, I should say.

PHILLIPS: Strong laugh.

Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM...

O'BRIEN: New planets in the news today. How you find them, what it all means. Could there be someone out there? LIVE FROM goes outside the solar system, after a break.

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