Health Impact News Editor Comments
Fortunately, I do not have to travel by air often. But for years now, I have avoided the airport security full body scanners. For those few of you out there who also avoid these scanners, you know what it means to be humiliated and scorned to cause such an inconvenience to TSA employees. Most of them (although not all) think you are stupid and paranoid.
Recently, I was at a major airport where I informed them I would take the pat-down instead of going through the scanner. The man told me: “You know they recently changed these, and they are perfectly safe now. The radiation they admit is very low, and it is harmless EMF radiation” (like from your cell phones).
While his comments were meant to convince me that these machines were perfectly safe, his comment had the exact opposite effect for me. First, I avoid EMF radiation also, and do not hold my cell phone to my head but use a corded ear plug. Second, if, as he implied, the full body scanners had been changed and were “safer,” what does that communicate about all the assurances of safety regarding the former scanners??
These scanners may or may not be safe, I honestly do not know. But neither does he. Unless he was part of the development team that invented and manufactured these machines, he was simply telling me something someone else told him he should tell me. He may trust the government, the TSA, and his superiors, but I do not. They have done nothing for me to earn that trust, and history proves they are untrustworthy.
Yes, I know, when you are in an airport and in a hurry, it is extremely inconvenient to have to wait and be humiliated. But I’ll continue doing it.
Politico has published a riveting piece written by Jason Harrington, a former TSA insider and whistle-blower. So before you blindly trust that these machines are safe and effective, you might want to read this first. I am unaware of any reports that the TSA has stopped any terrorists yet.
Dear America, I Saw You Naked
And yes, we were laughing. Confessions of an ex-TSA agent.
by JASON EDWARD HARRINGTON
Politico
Excerpts:
I hated it from the beginning. It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying.
Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.
We knew the full-body scanners didn’t work before they were even installed. Not long after the Underwear Bomber incident, all TSA officers at O’Hare were informed that training for the Rapiscan Systems full-body scanners would soon begin. The machines cost about $150,000 a pop. Officers discovered that the machines were good at detecting just about everything besides cleverly hidden explosives and guns. The only thing more absurd than how poorly the full-body scanners performed was the incredible amount of time the machines wasted for everyone.
But the only people who hated the body-scanners more than the public were TSA employees themselves. Many of my co-workers felt uncomfortable even standing next to the radiation-emitting machines we were forcing members of the public to stand inside. Several told me they submitted formal requests for dosimeters, to measure their exposure to radiation. The agency’s stance was that dosimeters were not necessary—the radiation doses from the machines were perfectly acceptable, they told us. We would just have to take their word for it. When concerned passengers—usually pregnant women—asked how much radiation the machines emitted and whether they were safe, we were instructed by our superiors to assure them everything was fine.