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.

FMI: www.tsa.gov