Dear Mr. Moseley:
Thank you for sharing your views about the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) airport screening methods.
Air travel in the United States should be the safest and most efficient in the world. The Transportation Security Administration is increasing the number of Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) scanners in airports around the country as part of a program to increase security at our nation’s airports. This new technology is able to detect concealed plastic and ceramic weapons as well as explosives that evade traditional metal detectors. According to TSA, this screening method, including millimeter wave AIT and backscatter AIT, is safe for all passengers — including pregnant women, children, and passengers with medical devices. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institute for Standards and Technology, and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory have all confirmed that this technology is safe. In fact, travelers receive more radiation from two minutes of an airline flight than from passing through one backscatter scanner; millimeter wave scanners emit even less energy.
TSA has set up an alternate security measure for passengers who feel uncomfortable being screened by the body image scanner. These individuals may decline to go through the scanner and will be patted down by a TSA officer of the same gender. All travelers have the right to request that a pat-down be conducted in a private room and witnessed by a person of that traveler’s choice.
I travel frequently and pass through the same TSA screening methods as other airline passengers. I believe that TSA must balance the need to employ enhanced security measures with privacy concerns and seek the least intrusive approaches that still assure heightened passenger safety. I support bolstering the safeguards in place to prevent terrorists from entering our country and endangering our citizens. However, it also makes sense to explore whether current strategies could be revised to improve privacy while still allowing TSA agents to discover concealed explosives and weapons that are not detectable by traditional methods.
Should relevant legislation come before the Senate, I will keep your views in mind. For more information on your rights - and what to expect - as a traveler, you may wish to visit TSA's website at http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/index.shtm.
Thank you again for getting in touch with me and thank you for your service to our nation.
Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown
United States Senator
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