By Calvin Biesecker
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Friday said that it has found “inaccuracies” in the test results its contractors have performed on the agency’s various types of X-ray imaging equipment related to radiation the machines give off.
TSA said that it has reviewed the reports from the equipment manufacturers as well as a contractor it employs for the maintenance of its various screening equipment and found that “each piece of technology reviewed meets all the national safety standards.”
Nonetheless, the disclosure prompted an immediate rebuke from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has been concerned about the potential health effects given off by the backscatter X-ray versions of the whole body imagers that TSA is using to screen passengers at airport checkpoints.
“Administrator [John] Pistole and I have discussed at length the full-body scanners, and TSA has repeatedly assured me that the machines that emit radiation do not pose a health risk,” Collins said in a statement. “Nonetheless, if TSA contractors reporting on the radiation levels have done such a poor job, how can airline passengers and crew have confidence in the data used by the TSA to reassure the public? More than one in four reports–randomly selected from thousands of reports over two years and covering 15 airports– included gross errors about radiation emissions. That is completely unacceptable when it comes to monitoring radiation.”
Among TSA’s findings, the agency says the various contractor reporting inaccuracies include leaving out readings of background radiation, a “lack of notation for the latest calibration date for the machine being tested,” missing information on warning labels, “calculation errors not impacting safety” and leaving out other information.
The contractors include SAIC [SAI], France’s Safran Group, Britain’s Smiths Detection, L-3 Communications [LLL], OSI Systems [OSIS] and Germany’s Siemens [SI]. Siemens provides maintenance services for the screening equipment while the other firms supply various systems that screen people, carry-on bags and checked bags.
TSA posted the safety reports on its web site where it also disclosed the reporting inaccuracies.
To further increase transparency, I have directed the agency to make internal radiation safety reports for TSA equipment that uses X-ray technology, including backscatter advanced imaging technology for screening passengers, available online for public review,” Pistole said in a statement. “We are also taking additional steps to build on existing safety measures in an open and transparent way, including commissioning an additional independent entity to evaluate these protocols.”
TSA said it is holding its contractors accountable by requiring them to re-test all of the equipment for which an inaccurate report was made by the end of this month. The agency is also requiring the contractors to re-train their testing personnel that are involved in the radiation survey process.
TSA is also boosting its oversight of the radiation survey and documentation process and has asked the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health re-evaluate TSA’s safety program. The agency is also expanding an existing partnership with the United States Army Public Health Command to conduct additional independent radiation surveys and radiation safety compliance audits at airports equipped with X-ray based technologies.