The non-profit public interest research center, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), obtained documents that reveal the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intentionally misled the public about the safety of full body scanners (1).

EPIC settled an appeal for their FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) case against DHS and finally obtained body scanner radiation fact sheets. Prior to this appeal, EPIC states that the DHS’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) “withheld test results, fact sheets, and estimates regarding the radiation risks of body scanners used to screen passengers at airports.”

EPIC first filed the FOIA request on July 13, 2010 with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The request was for “agency records that directly relate to the radiation risks posed by TSA’s full body scanner program.”

EPIC reports that “DHS acknowledged receipt of EPIC’s FOIA request, but failed to disclose any documents.” EPIC then sued DHS for the documents on November 19, 2010 (2).

While the DHS did immediately disclose “key documents” at that time, according to EPIC the agency still withheld other documents. The first group of documents released in 2010 revealed test results that the radiation from using full body scanners might have been more than what the TSA claimed.

As for the lawsuit to force DHS to disclose all of the documents, the lower court determined that “the factual material was ‘deliberative’ and therefore exempt from the FOIA”. Countering this block, EPIC joined an appellate mediation and was finally able to obtain the other documents.

EPIC’s successful appeal argued that “federal agencies may not withhold factual information under the ‘deliberative process privilege’ in the Freedom of Information Act.” The court agreed.









What the Fact Sheets Revealed

In examining the TSA documents, EPIC discovered that the agency (TSA) “did not perform a ‘quantitative analysis’ of risks and benefits before implementing the body scanner program.”

These were some of the concerns that EPIC addressed in its 2011 lawsuit against DHS for the suspension of the body scanner program. That lawsuit resulted in the successful “removal of backscatter X-ray scanners from US airports”.

The “backscatter” X-Ray uses “high energy X-rays”. These X-rays penetrate materials more than medical X-rays that are low-energy. In effect, the machine penetrates clothing to reveal the nude body of the person being scanned.

This intrusion of individual privacy through such indiscreet imaging of a person’s body and the security flaws in the equipment being used along with the TSA’s ability to store those images indefinitely are components of another EPIC lawsuit against DHS/TSA.

Among the documents that EPIC received under FOIA were two emails from AJ Castilla, President of Local 2617 in Boston, MA. One email was to the union members and the other was to Heather Callahan DFSD, who Castilla identifies as the person over the health and safety issues of the airport (3).

The May 19, 2010 email to Callahan has a subject line that read: “RE: BOS TSO cancer + radiation safety and health risk concerns”

Castilla writes that TSOs “consistently complain to me [as I am sure they are complaining to TSA] about their concern over the growing number of TSOs working here that have been diagnosed as having cancer and of their concerns that TSA’s utilized technology may be to be blame.”

Castilla notes that while some of those with cancer are no longer working at the airport, “….BOS still has an alarmingly high number of cancer afflicted TSOs still working here or out while trying to address the illness.”

A very telling part of the email is Castilla’s reference to this not being a new issue. “Despite TSA management’s past assurances, many TSOs here do not feel safe from radiation threats that may go hand in hand with using x-ray screening technology, especially the newer [installed since TSA federalized airport security] technology that has been lesser used in our country than much older but also feared Rapiscan machines.”

Further revealing of the TSOs’ fears is Castilla’s mention of a current investigation, “I am aware that you are currently helping TSA to investigate the local TSA BOS employees with diagnosed cancer issues…”