Airport screeners to be tested for radiation

last updated 8 January 2015

The Transportation Security Administration said this week that it would conduct new tests to measure potential radiation hazards from the scanning machines at more than 100 airports. But the TSA does not plan to test the machines themselves or to measure radiation exposure for passengers. The agency plans to test only its airport security officers to see if they are being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation while working with the scanners. “We still have no idea how much radiation is being imposed on travelers by a properly functioning machine,” said James Babb, co-founder of We Won’t Fly, a consumer advocacy group. “A malfunctioning machine could be particularly nasty.”