Collins wants TSA to study health effects of scanning machines

Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) wrote to the head of the Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday reiterating her request for an independent study of the health effects of scanning machines.

In her letter, Collins notes TSA Administrator John Pistole agreed to conduct the study on the effects of backscatter Advanced Imaging Technology machines earlier this month, but later told the Senate Commerce Committee that a forthcoming DHS Inspector General report would be sufficient.

Collins disagreed in her letter.

"My understanding is that the IG report will examine whether or not TSA is doing an adequate job of inspecting, maintaining, and operating AIT machines," Collins wrote. "This is not the same as conducting an independent study on the health effects of those AIT machines emitting ionizing radiation."

Collins asks Pistole to explain why an IG report could be sufficient and whether he intends to conduct the promised independent study.

In a second letter she repeats an earlier recommendation that TSA place larger signs at scanner checkpoints alerting the public and pregnant women in particular that they have the option of undergoing alternative screening methods.

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