Steve Watson
The chairman of a House oversight committee on homeland defense has labeled “inexcusable” the TSA’s continued refusal to release it’s internal reports on the safety of radiation firing airport body scanners.
“The public has a right to know, and there isn’t something so sensitive that requires holding it back,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. tells USA Today.
The newspaper filed Freedom of information requests for the reports over two months ago, prompting members of congress to get involved, with a group led by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, demanding that the TSA release the documents.
Two months on, the TSA says it is still reviewing the documents to ensure they do not contain any sensitive information that could be a threat to national security.
TSA spokeswoman Giselle Barry told USA Today that the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is investigating the adequacy of the TSA’s X-ray inspection program at the request of Markey, yet still refused to confirm when the safety reports would be made available.
The safety of new body scanners has been particularly questioned in light of an independent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried out in 2004, found that some baggage scanners, which emit the same type of X-rays, were in violation of federal radiation standards, and were emitting two or three times beyond the agreed safe limit.
A further 2008 CDC report noted that some X-ray machines were missing protective lead curtains or had had safety features disabled by TSA employees with duct tape, paper towels and other materials.
TSA employees themselves have also voiced concern over the safety of the scanners. Workers are reportedly unhappy with the fact that they are being kept in the dark by their employers, despite repeated requests for information.
“We don’t think the agency is sharing enough information,” said Milly Rodriguez, occupational health and safety specialist at the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents TSA workers.
“Radiation just invokes a lot of fear.” she added.
According to the USA Today report, several TSA employees have expressed their concerns to the CDC:
…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.
The TSA is responsible for inspecting the scanners and producing safety reports itself, rather than the FDA, because they are not classed as medical devices.
“It should send some flashing red lights when they won’t allow the public to review that data,” Rep. Chaffetz has noted. Chaffetz oversaw the passage in the House last year of an amendment to ban “strip-search” imaging at airports altogether.
“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.
Considering scores of warnings from scientists, more TSA workers should be concerned over the levels of radiation they are being exposed to and are being asked to expose the public to.
Read more:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/%E2%80%9Cinexcusable%E2%80%9D-tsa-still-refusing-to-release-naked-scanner-safety-reports.html
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