…a TSA employee at an unidentified airport asked CDC in June to examine concerns about radiation exposures from standing near the new full-body X-ray scanners for hours a day. The CDC said it didn’t have authority to do a hazard assessment unless three or more current employees at one location made a joint request, according to a September letter from the CDC to the unnamed worker. The CDC provided the letter to USA TODAY.
So these machines obviously aren't being tested for safety, and I guess the manufacturer's word that backscatter radiation is safe is good enough for the government. As well, according to the article the TSA refuses to release any information about the levels of radiation emitted by these machines. I wonder why that would be if these devices are as safe as the TSA claims they are.
Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz (UT) wants answers about why the TSA isn't conducting safety tests and releasing radiation level information of the scanners.
“It should send some flashing red lights when they won’t allow the public to review that data,” said Chaffetz, who oversaw the passage in the House last year of an amendment to ban “strip-search” imaging at airports.
“You don’t have to look at my wife and 8-year-old daughter naked to secure an airplane,” Chaffetz said at the time.
“You can actually see the sweat on somebody’s back. You can tell the difference between a dime and a nickel. If they can do that, they can see things that quite frankly I don’t think they should be looking at in order to secure a plane,” Chaffetz told the House.
What's it going to take to find out the truth of whether these things are safe? A cancer ward full of TSA agents and frequent fliers?
