The reports involve about 715 inspections and generally covered radiation tests from December 2011 through December 2012. USA TODAY filed the request after the agency refused repeated requests in the fall of 2010 - by the newspaper and members of Congress - to voluntarily release the reports. USA TODAY reviewed the latest airport X-ray scanner inspection reports, which TSA recently posted on its website and said are a response to a February 2011 Freedom of Information Act request filed by the newspaper. The governing body of the European Union has banned the use of X-ray body scanners in order "not to risk jeopardizing citizens' health and safety." The full-body scanners deliver less than 5 microrem of radiation per screening, according to Rapiscan.Ĭritics have questioned the wisdom of adding to passengers' radiation exposure when other types of scanners are available that don't use X-rays. According to the Health Physics Society, passengers on a flight from New York to Los Angeles are exposed to about 4,000 microrem of cosmic radiation and a chest X-ray can deliver 10,000 microrem. The TSA has repeatedly sought to assure the public that the radiation exposures delivered by the machines are tiny, the equivalent to what passengers receive during two minutes of a typical flight. "It's yet another set of test results that show the systems are operating exactly as we said they would, that they are well below safety limits."
"We're very pleased with the results of the latest batch of inspection reports," said Peter Kant, Rapiscan's executive vice president. Full-body scanners using a different technology that does not involve ionizing radiation, called millimeter wave, will remain in use to screen passengers. Regardless, the TSA is in the final phases of removing the last of Rapiscan's backscatter scanners from airport checkpoints by June. While the TSA and scanner-maker Rapiscan Systems say the reports offer additional proof of safety, some critics remain unconvinced. airports underwent more than 700 inspections last year with all tests showing radiation levels below standards used by their manufacturer and the Transportation Security Administration, according to a USA TODAY review of the recently released reports. Millimeter wave scanners%2C which don%27t use X-rays%2C will remain in airports.Ĭontroversial full-body X-ray scanners at U.S.airports by June because of privacy issues. The X-ray machines will all be removed from U.S.Backscatter X-ray passenger scanners passed all radiation tests in records released recently by the TSA.
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