TSA Records Show Full Body Scanner Radiation ’10X Higher Than Expected’ … All Scanner to be Retested

How can one agency continue to have so many problems?

After informing the public that air port scanners were safe, USA Today reports that maintenance records on some of the “invasive” scanner devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected. In response the TSA stated that the ”records reflect math mistakes”; however, they would retest all 247 full body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation in 38 airports.

The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records — the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes — appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.

Even so, the TSA has ordered the new tests out of “an abundance of caution to reassure the public,” spokesman Nicholas Kimball says. The tests will be finished by the end of the month, and the results will be released “as they are completed,” the agency said on its website.

Math mistakes? So there is not a higher level of radiation, there is in stead gross ignorance and a lack of proper oversight? As stated by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) … the actions by the TSA are “unacceptable”.

She said the records released Friday “included gross errors about radiation emissions. That is completely unacceptable when it comes to monitoring radiation.”

U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz also was troubled by the information posted by the TSA. Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairs a House oversight subcommittee on national security and has sponsored legislation to limit the use of full-body scans. He has been pushing the TSA to release the maintenance records.

At best, Chaffetz said, the radiation reports generated by TSA contractors reveal haphazard oversight and record-keeping in the critical inspection system the agency relies upon to ensure millions of travelers aren’t subjected to excessive doses of radiation.