Collins, a skeptic of X-ray scanners, lauds new Portland jetport equipment as ‘safe alternative’

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and has been among the more critical in Congress of the Transportation Security Administration’s X-ray-based airport scanners.

During a November hearing, Collins pressed TSA honcho John Pistole for a third-party review of the agency’s X-ray machines, reiterating skepticism that radiation emitted from the devices is harmless. She told Pistole that one of her Maine constituents suffered a miscarriage after passing through a so-called “backscatter” X-ray airport scanner.

So she was watching (from afar) when TSA installed new full-body scanners at the busiest airport in her home state, the Portland International Jetport. (See today’s story on the unveiling of the scanners here.)

There are two manufacturers through which TSA purchases its so-called AIT scanners (advanced imaging technology): L3 and Rapiscan.

TSA graphic comparing AIT technologies

While Rapiscan’s equipment largely utilizes X-ray technology to search air travelers for anomalies, L3’s ProVision model scans passengers using millimeter wave radio frequency technology.

TSA representatives have defended both technologies. In the aforementioned hearing, Pistole told Collins the X-ray scanners produce the same radiation as one-thousandth of a chest X-ray one would get at a hospital, or — and this is similar to what TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis told reporters today in Portland — the equivalent of three minutes of flight at elevation.

Nonetheless, Collins was much happier the Portland jetport received equipment using millimeter wave radio frequency technology. She issued this statement to me on the subject:

I am pleased that the Portland airport has a safe scanning alternative that does not use X-rays that emit potentially harmful radiation. In fact, I have been pushing for expanded use of this technology since January 2010 when I traveled to Amsterdam to see first-hand the automatic target detection software in AIT machines at the Schiphol Airport, which were installed in the wake of the airport’s failure to detect the explosives on the Christmas Day terrorist.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.