FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Foot fetish at SAT? Plus laughter about radiation exposure
Old May 18, 2015, 12:59 am
  #19  
Mats
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Arizona, USA
Posts: 2,403
Two different issues here.


1. Foot paranoia

Common sense is long gone. There have been cases other than the Richard Reid of passengers carrying weapons in shoes. And I remember having to take my shoes off at Heathrow in the 80s.

But it makes a mess. Having everyone take off their shoes is cumbersome and pointless. Statistically, how many flights enter the USA every day or fly around the world with no shoe inspection and no adverse effects? (A jingoist TSA enthusiast would say, "What if?" "But... but...?")

Wanding, swabbing, and inspecting bare feet contributes to the TSA's lack of credibility. Many of us have stories of wanding and inspecting bare skin: short-sleeve shirts, shorts, no socks, etc. I cannot see any reason other than paranoid bureaucracy to support this practice.

2. Radiation Exposure
Although I am not a fan of millimetre wave screening, question its purpose, and there is a potential for adverse health consequences, I think the real threat to employees involves baggage, not passengers.

Checked baggage goes through CT scanners, using much higher radiation doses. And those who are screening hand luggage are standing or sitting next to almost continuous-use x-ray equipment. (Medical x-ray and CT equipment is used only intermittently--when a patient is present.)

The recent GAO report about the lack of maintenance makes me think of the 2008 episode at Cedars-Sinai in which more than 200 patients received eight times the ordered radiation dose. This took place over an eighteen-month period. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct...cedars-sinai14

Although there is a risk to passengers, I think that TSA employees and contract employees who work around them are at extraordinary risk: poorly maintained equipment using high-dose radiation.

My former neighbour was a police officer, and he developed metastatic testicular cancer from a radar gun using to identify speeding. Such irony: equipment designed to protect the public actually caused significant harm.

Your safety is our priority.
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