RIP: Puffer Machines

If you do fly the airlines regularly, you'll notice something missing at commercial airports - those obnoxious "puffer" machines designed to dislodge particles from your clothing, so they can be analyzed for traces of bomb-making materials.
 
The program will go down as a classic in the annals of government excess. Four years ago, when anything labeled "security" was difficult to oppose, TSA got the green light to spend 30 Million dollars to buy 207 of the machines. USA Today reports the money was spent, but only 94 of the machines were ever installed at airports. The other 113 never left storage.
 
At airports, the machines couldn't handle dirt and humidity. TSA spent another 6.2 Million dollars trying to fix and maintain them. Now, they're giving up. 60 of the machines have already been removed. There's no particular timetable for pulling the rest. but apparently the TSA can't wait to see them gone.
 
Even Hasbrouck Miller, a VP of Smiths Detection, which made the puffers, admits, quote - "It was a torturous four years. The TSA finally got tired of pursuing that angle and moved on to something else."
 
That something else is the new full-body scanners.
 
But even the decision to scrap the machines doesn't mean the bonfire is out in the money pile. TSA will have to spend another million dollars on decommissioning the machines.

Wouldn't you think, given the apparent bottomless budget for anything labeled "security," the TSA could have found a few bucks to pay for its own new mandate of security badges for private pilots at commercial airports?

FMI: www.tsa.gov