I will not step into a medical imaging device maintained by people whose second option for a career involves serving items from the Chick-fil-A menu.

Frankly, they're being negligent by not having staff wear these already. The fact that worker and public safety is a secondary concern to spending the big bucks on these machines tells you something about TSA priorities.

Personal dosimeters on people who work with radiation? Seems like a no-brainer.

thenateman: Personal dosimeters on people who work with radiation? Seems like a no-brainer.

Honestly im suprised OSHA hasent smacked the TSA with the fine stick repeatedly for this. I can see the headlines now, "NEXT UP ON THE FACTOR! OBAMAS OSHA CRONIES FINE THE TSA FOR NOT HAVING THEIR EMPLOYEES WEAR SPECIAL WRISTBANDS! I GUESS OBAMA JUST LIKES TO TAKE MONEY AWAY FROM THE ORGANIZATIONS DESIGNED TO PROTECT US!? *Squibbily babity POW!*"

shinji3i: thenateman: Personal dosimeters on people who work with radiation? Seems like a no-brainer.

Honestly im suprised OSHA hasent smacked the TSA with the fine stick repeatedly for this.

The TSA thinks it is exempt from OSHA. POTUS prefers homeland security to worker safety.

Yada yada, 10 years later the workers get personal dosimeters.

As a health physicist, I highly doubt that TSA workers are getting any significant radiation exposure. BUT, they definitely should be monitored to prove that. The NRC never lets me get away with anything less.

meh im farked either way lead poisoning, radiation, or alcohol poisoning guys?

coudnt even get a farking job at mc Donald tsa hired me.

shows how low the hiring process is then again think it helped that i wasn't a complete smart ass with tsa

thenateman: shinji3i: thenateman: Personal dosimeters on people who work with radiation? Seems like a no-brainer.

Honestly im suprised OSHA hasent smacked the TSA with the fine stick repeatedly for this.

The TSA thinks it is exempt from OSHA. POTUS prefers homeland security to worker safety.

Yada yada, 10 years later the workers get personal dosimeters.

Kinda great since the military is deathly afraid of the EPA and OSHA as they have no qualms against slapping fines on them. "One of your joes drove a vehicle through a protected area while training? Bam quarter of your units budget." "Oh your dudes werent document and performing checks on that stuff? Boom give us some monies." "You didint put the right label on that package you were shipping. ZING! Fine time."

shinji3i: thenateman: shinji3i: thenateman: Personal dosimeters on people who work with radiation? Seems like a no-brainer.

Honestly im suprised OSHA hasent smacked the TSA with the fine stick repeatedly for this.

The TSA thinks it is exempt from OSHA. POTUS prefers homeland security to worker safety.

Yada yada, 10 years later the workers get personal dosimeters.

Kinda great since the military is deathly afraid of the EPA and OSHA as they have no qualms against slapping fines on them. "One of your joes drove a vehicle through a protected area while training? Bam quarter of your units budget." "Oh your dudes werent document and performing checks on that stuff? Boom give us some monies." "You didint put the right label on that package you were shipping. ZING! Fine time."

but the military's parent agency cant start a terrorism corruption investigation against your agent, and by default you, because they might not have dug deep enough where the company you are checking on has a personnel clerk who has a cousin who dated a red headed stepchild of a woman who might have flashed her tit at a man who was so traumatized he forgot about his nail clippers in his pocket on a flight he took 3 years earlier and bragged about it on face book. that face book post was then read by a nun who was trying to convert a youth who told his friend who was caught trying to bring down a plane in Africa by using nail clippers to scratch through the window glass while it was still on the ground... as reported by Fox News

that and also, people like to hear "it keeps the troops safe", everyone hates the TSA (most do), so fark em

/god i hope i didnt give the Politicians another talking point they will try to use

Put me in the "Surprised that they weren't doing this already" column. I've seen dosimeters in places where I knew for a fact there wasn't anything to be worried about but they put them there anyway just to prove it because it was about 20 or so feet away from an old defueled reactor that the general public could kinda-sorta get close to.

Meanwhile, about 200' away out in the parking lot it was at least 10x "Hotter" due to the surrounding rocks and there was not a monitoring device in sight because it was naturally occurring background radiation.

profplump: Reddkell: As a health physicist, I highly doubt that TSA workers are getting any significant radiation exposure.

Right. Everything should be fine. If the machines work as designed and are used correctly it should all be fairly safe (useless but still fairly safe). But since it's difficult for humans to detect radiation and it has cumulative exposure effects, it needs to be monitored and we need safety protocols to ensure that "works as designed" meets "works in practice". It's certainly a plausible goal -- one that we meet all the time in other industries that use ionizing radiation.

But these machines have no "beam on" indicator, no personnel training, no environmental or personnel monitoring, and not even a regular freaking maintenance schedule. For all we known some TSA agent dropped a quarter in the machine because he thought it was a coffee maker and it's been spewing x-rays 24/7 directly at the on-queue position ever since.

as an IH I'm getting a kick out of your comment.

Personal dosimeters measure exactly how much radiation a person receives, so the levels can be compared with the limits set by the government.

Dosimeters measure how much radiation it receives. To measure how much radiation the person receives it has to be worn at all times. To measure how much radiation the person receives while at work they have to wear it work and store it in a (relatively) radiation free area. I have no faith that the TSA can do this.


profplump: Reddkell: As a health physicist, I highly doubt that TSA workers are getting any significant radiation exposure.

Right. Everything should be fine. If the machines work as designed and are used correctly it should all be fairly safe (useless but still fairly safe). But since it's difficult for humans to detect radiation and it has cumulative exposure effects, it needs to be monitored and we need safety protocols to ensure that "works as designed" meets "works in practice". It's certainly a plausible goal -- one that we meet all the time in other industries that use ionizing radiation.

But these machines have no "beam on" indicator, no personnel training, no environmental or personnel monitoring, and not even a regular freaking maintenance schedule. For all we known some TSA agent dropped a quarter in the machine because he thought it was a coffee maker and it's been spewing x-rays 24/7 directly at the on-queue position ever since.

First time I have used the "smart" button.

America: Doing shiat like we're the Soviet Union since 2001.

Might want to check into that hydraulic fracking and reckless deep sea drilling too. There might be some long term costs there...

Phil Moskowitz: America: Doing shiat like we're the Soviet Union since 2001.

Might want to check into that hydraulic fracking and reckless deep sea drilling too. There might be some long term costs there...

Nah, then how will we snark when they accidentally weaken the rock above a magma chamber and wipe several small towns off the face of the earth?

profplump: Reddkell: As a health physicist, I highly doubt that TSA workers are getting any significant radiation exposure.

Right. Everything should be fine. If the machines work as designed and are used correctly it should all be fairly safe (useless but still fairly safe). But since it's difficult for humans to detect radiation and it has cumulative exposure effects, it needs to be monitored and we need safety protocols to ensure that "works as designed" meets "works in practice". It's certainly a plausible goal -- one that we meet all the time in other industries that use ionizing radiation.

But these machines have no "beam on" indicator, no personnel training, no environmental or personnel monitoring, and not even a regular freaking maintenance schedule. For all we known some TSA agent dropped a quarter in the machine because he thought it was a coffee maker and it's been spewing x-rays 24/7 directly at the on-queue position ever since.

The on-queue position is my penis

/Overheard in the break room.
//It's not MY penis after all. See? It's perfectly normal. No, it's always been like that. Why?

Reddkell: As a health physicist, I highly doubt that TSA workers are getting any significant radiation exposure. BUT, they definitely should be monitored to prove that. The NRC never lets me get away with anything less.

As a basement dwelling tinfoil hatter, I highly doubt that TSA workers are getting any functional dosimeters. BUT, they definitely should be going through the motions of putting dosimeters on these poor schlubs. The KGB (oops DHS, but they mean the same thing) would never try to get away with anything less.

Has anyone considered monitoring them for common sense?

FTA: "The measurements will assist the TSA in determining if the Transportation Security Officers (TSO) at selected federalized airports are exposed to ionizing radiation above minimum detectable levels"

You don't need to do a long term study to figure it out. Electronic Personal Dosimeters tell you in real time how much radiation you're absorbing. Hint: if it's more than 0.0 mrem indoors in the middle of a building then it's occupational exposure and should be being tracked, recorded, and limited just like it is for other federal employees and contractors.

tankjr: Reddkell: As a health physicist, I highly doubt that TSA workers are getting any significant radiation exposure. BUT, they definitely should be monitored to prove that. The NRC never lets me get away with anything less.

As a basement dwelling tinfoil hatter, I highly doubt that TSA workers are getting any functional dosimeters. BUT, they definitely should be going through the motions of putting dosimeters on these poor schlubs. The KGB (oops DHS, but they mean the same thing) would never try to get away with anything less.

Some theate for the theatre, eh? It's meta, I'll give you that.