Wed, Feb 25, 2004
Group Of Screeners X-Ray Themselves
"If I only had a brain,"
was the verse sung by the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz. Perhaps
it should also be the motto for some TSA airport screeners. Believe
it or not, a security screener at Denver International Airport has
been reprimanded and several others at airports across the country
put on administrative leave for sending their bodies through
checkpoint x-ray machines to see what their brains look like. No
kidding, folks.
The TSA is not saying exactly who x-rayed themselves or when
because of privacy reasons, but a source tells Denver's KUSA
TV news the six screeners were working at passenger
checkpoints when they decided to x-ray their own bodies. Like a
piece of luggage, the screeners would have rolled down the conveyor
belt into the opening, about 2.5 feet high and a foot and a half
wide.
"There's enough training, enough education available in the
public domain, let alone the circumstances of the TSA, to know this
is a foolhardy thing to do,” said David Forbes, president of
Boydforbes, Inc. “The questions that come out of this though
are what is the level of supervision?"
Forbes, a security expert, says this highlights a lack of good
management and training. But TSA spokesman Mike Fierberg says it
was just someone doing something stupid. He insists it did not
interfere with security. TSA would not say if the screeners were
still on administrative leave. In fact, it would only confirm that
"some kind of action" was taken against one screener at DIA.
As for the screeners’ health, the manufacturers of the
x-ray equipment say the exposure is actually too low to hurt
anyone. They say a chest x-ray at a hospital would be 50 times
stronger than an x-ray from an airport system.
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