At this stage I'm not sure if the sociopathy is causal or resultive of TSA employment.

Do TSA employees start out as sociopaths, working their way to the bottom and ending up working for the TSA?

Or does their utter lack of any marketable skills push them into employment with the TSA, where they lose their empathy and become sociopaths?

It's definitely an issue of training. More to the point? A lack of understanding of what it is they are actually doing - they are testing for small traces of explosives - tiny amounts. THEREFORE? It should not take anyone older than about 10 to realise that IF they are searching for tiny amounts of material THEN the devices used for testing should be kept as clean/sterile as possible.

Given the number of false positives they get - you'd think that would be their first clue.

What is scary is that these geniuses are in charge of our safety.

No, they're not.

Don't mistake "safety" for "the illusion of safety."

If a testing device alerts often enough and no item is found to cause the alert then the operator will soon give less attention to the results.

Of course. Just watch the screeners, not just TSA, but ANY screeners, run the swab tests. They have zero expectation of finding any explosives. While the poor passenger hovers about nervously wondering if today it's his turn for a machine/operator screw-up and whatever humiliation accompanies that. All this for a test that produces 100% bad results.

The aircrews, maintenance guys and FAA are in charge of our safety.

Your sarcasm detection equipment needs adjusting

There is a difference between a sterile location such as a hospital, and a checkpoint in an airport, recognizing that, and the fact that sometimes cross contamination is going to happen in the airport setting is merely facing a reality.

Passengers are simply people trying to get from point A to point B (or C, D or E in some cases), nothing more or less. Treating them like the human beings going on about their business that they are, is what we are supposed to do, and what I do every day at work.

I realize you don't make the rules. I also realize that the common sense you exhibit is not always present at checkpoints.

As you point out, a checkpoint is anything but sterile and cross-contamination can happen (it can also happen in a so-called 'sterile' environment - witness recent events in a quarantined government facility where a dangerous 'superbug' got loose).

IMHO, when a test is positive, it should be standard procedure to immediately rerun the test with explicit attention to the possibility of contamination - ie, TSO removes gloves, sanitizes hands, gets a new set of gloves from a different box/location, tests gloves in machine, if clear, swabs pax and re-tests.

This should, IMHO, be the first step after any 'positive'. It's the sort of 'first step' many professionals in other lines of work take when a test comes up positive. The 'first step' should not be to force the pax into a mandatory backroom unwitnessed, unphotographed frisk of body and belongings, accompanied by a report on the pax that becomes a permanent part of a that individual's government record.

Neverthelss, every hospital does acknowlege that, even given their best efforts, iatrogenic infections will happen. Everybody who posted in this thread agrees that what was observed by the OP is unacceptable, but I also agree that cross-contamination is inevitable.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. It's despicable that the TSA automatically assumes that we are the cause of false positive results instead of testing its procedures first. Once again, guilty until proven innocent even when TSA commits errors.... try that approach in a court of law with prosecutorial or law enforcement errors.

That is simply not true. Not when you reserve the right to touch any part of the passenger's body that you want, when you want, for no reason, at random. Not when you treat passengers's bodies as if you had full rights to them. Or rub their sex organs thoroughly in humiliating fashion if they alarm on a test that produces 100% false alarms. No human being should be treated that way without cause. No human being wants to be treated that way.

If you want to see people getting treated like human beings, go to New Zealand or any number of countries abroad whose screeners don't conduct themselves like TSA clerks do, as ordered by TSA.

Sorry, but the words don't convince me. Not when they are contradicted at every airport.

Of course infections happen in hospitals. But the attitude demonstrated above was "it doesn't matter if someone contaminates the swabs because contamination is inevitable." I find it unlikely that a hospital would say "it doesn't matter who handles the surgical instruments or whether the doctors wash their hands, because contamination is inevitable."

There's a difference between taking reasonable measures to avoid contamination and dealing the odd case that couldn't be anticipated, and taking no measures to avoid contamination at all. And so, as gsoltso says, there's a difference between a hospital - where they try to prevent contamination - and a TSA checkpoint - where they don't.

When one is subject to detainment, loss of money, delays in travel and fines for things "discovered" at the checkpoint, the level of seriousness rises to one similar to health care even though it is of a different type.

In fact, in law it may be more serious. The government's ability to take your property or money, detain or imprison you, search your person or property, or even restrict your right of association or movement, are all written into the constitutional restrictions on what the government can do. The quality of your healthcare and the damages that result from errors there are not addressed specifically and are handled through the tort system or through criminal charges.

I understand this and think that this is a possible solution, but it is not the current policy. I would welcome this type of procedure if it is deemed feasible to implement at the checkpoint. We have standard decon protocols that go into effect when an alarm is triggered, perhaps the next step should be as you suggest.

I always treat every passenger and bystander and employee in my sphere of influence with professionalism and courtesy. That is what ALL TSOs are supposed to do without fail. The fact that some of the workforce does not "get it" is something I work to correct every time I see it happen. Policy is always up for debate, but TSOs should always be expected to conduct themsleves professionally and courteously - period.

The attitude that I display is simply an understanding that cross contamination is going to occur from time to time. TSA has and follows (at least in my experience - even at LAX when I worked there, and LAX is a zoo!) the SOP and manufacturers recommendations for decon, maintenance and cleaning procedures.