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TSA's mm-Wave Body Scanner Breaks Diabetic Teen's $10K Insulin Pump
OverTheGeicoE writes "Savannah Barry, a Colorado teenager, was returning home from a conference in Salt Lake City. She is a diabetic and wears an insulin pump to control her insulin levels 24/7. She carries documentation of her condition to assist screeners, who usually give her a pat-down search. This time the screeners listened to her story, read her doctor's letter, and forced her to go through a millimeter-wave body scanner anyway. The insulin pump stopped working correctly, and of course, she was subjected to an invasive manual search. 'My life is pretty much in their hands when I go through a body scan with my insulin pump on,' she says. She wants TSA screeners to have more training. Was this a predictable outcome, considering that no one outside TSA has access to millimeter-wave scanners for testing? Would oversight from the FDA or FCC prevent similar incidents from happening in the future?"
TSA: Nearly killing innocent people, to keep you safe!
The White House just said the war on terror is over.
We don't need the TSA screeners any more, send them home and stop the unnecessary abuse of U.S. citizens.
Wait a minute... I think the larger issue here is that they forced her through the scanner.
Maybe I'm wrong, but is that not improper? I thought they had to allow manual inspection at your request.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
FYI: medical products, especially ones that have the potential to kill if they malfunction, have to undergo substantial testing to demonstrate their immunity to electromagnetic interference. This includes stuff like TV, radio, and cellular transmissions, microwave ovens and WiFi. There are also special field frequency/strength combinations, such as the typical medical detector or consumer anti-theft device.
However, there aren't regulations regarding immunity to mm-wave and THz scanners, and certainly not at the intensities these devices use. I suspect that, if you were to test a broad range of existing medical products, many of them would fail, because many of them have mm-scale electrical features (especially, circuit board traces) that would be highly susceptible.
Once you enter the security line, is it possible to just leave and not get on your flight if they refuse to do a manual search? Or are you at their complete mercy? I've never had a problem getting one with my own pump, but this story makes me nervous.
In any case, I really hope she sues them and wins.
P.S. This is probably a good time to mention Rand Paul's End the TSA petition and bill. I'm not usually a big fan of him, but this is one thing I can get behind.
I'm rather surprised that the TSA doesn't (appear) to have a manual to deal with known issues like insulin pumps, joint prostheses, etc. I wouldn't expect rank and file workers to know the answer to everything but there should be a way to look stuff up.
Being rude, however, is absolutely never appropriate. Even if you think the person is the next 'medical device bomber' being professional and polite should always be required.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I don't know if it is a real petition or not, but what I do know is it is a real SPAM list. Ever since signing it, they've been bombarding me with shit asking for money and their opt out doesn't seem to want to opt out.
I am more than a little annoyed.
We're from the government and we're here to keep you safe!
sudo make me a sandwich
Every time there's a story about the TSA making life unpleasant for Americans, a terrorist gets his wings..
Congratulations, the terrorists have won.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
I want to see the results of a forensic analysis of the unit to find out why it failed. if the scanner is putting out enough energy to permanently damage the circuits it's a strong argument against the safety of these things.
I hope her parents sue the TSA for attempted homicide and win enough to bankrupt the US.
If you read the article the TSA agents advised her that the insulin pump would not be damaged by the scanners, despite a doctors note to the contrary. She took their advice, assuming they knew what they were doing, and chose to go through the scanner rather than requesting a pat-down.
While her actions are understandable, if she had simply requested a pat-down like the doctor instructed her to do rather than asking for a second opinion, this would have been avoided. Likewise if agents weren't so stupid as to disagree with a doctor's order on a matter they knew nothing about, this would have been avoided. Given their position of authority they should be liable for the cost of the pump since their negligence caused it to be destroyed.
The two words you have to say are "Opt Out". They are required to hand search you. If they refuse, make a fuss. Get arrested if necessary. Even better, call the press on your cell phone. They'd love a story like this.
Electrical devices like that are full of amplifiers and things like field-effect transistors - things that take small changes in, and output much (relatively) larger ones.
It doesn't take much interference at all to cause problems, and this is made even worse that circuit traces etc can be resonant (where you most certainly will not) with the incoming interference, making things worse.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
He has had hip replacement surgery. "Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura is suing the TSA and Homeland Security for humiliating and ‘offensive’ pat-down procedures he’s been subjected to during airport security checks that included ‘warrantless, non-suspicion-based offensive touching, gripping and rubbing of the genital and other sensitive areas of his body.’ "
He is suing them in court.
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
You read the paperwork. Look at the device. Screen the passenger without the scanner. Document the incident with your peers and/or manager.
Move on and save the agency $10k because you are allowed to act like a human being with common sense.
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Yes, but with the revelation that there are more advanced bombs being created, how do we know that your "pacemaker" isn't just a surgically implanted bomb?
I just got a vision of seventeenth century witch trials, where a woman was tied up and weighted down with a stone, then thrown in the river. If she floated, she was a witch and burned. If she sank, she was not a witch (but likely drowned by the time she was fished out).
Now we'll just send you through the scanner, and if you die, it was a real medical device. If you don't, it's a bomb, and you'll be carted off. Either way, dangerous items are prevented from being on planes!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Because she's 16 and away from home, and probably just wants to get back. Quit expecting everyone to have a vigilate chip on their shoulder.
You know, as adults, we should have already fixed this god damned problem with our government - not expect our children to have to rise up against the man for something as simple and common place as a plane flight.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Disband the TSA
You're only letting the TSA stick around longer. If you protest by not flying (if you have the option to), then eventually they'll get the message. I stopped flying completely.
The TSA is a piece of garbage that needs to be completely abolished. Freedom and privacy > security.
If someone posted a story where someone claimed that their grandmother's pacemaker stopped working because the LHC was turned on, it would get voted down as unsupported circumstantial and anecdotal evidence. Most Slashdotters probably also laugh at people who are religious, even those who are convinced they witnessed a miracle from God at some point in their life. Come on guys. This is 99% a case of seeing what you want to see.
Being an insulin dependant diabetic, they could have easily killd her. It could have failed the other way and dumped several days of insulin into her at once. I guess once she passes out, they would have done a body cavity search before calling the paramedics.
Just opt out. Let them fondle your junk. It's not that big of a deal really, you let your doctor do it and you might actually have to look him in the eye, many times, after it. The TSA agent you will probably never see again... If everyone opts out, the scanners will go away.
Bow before me, for I am root.
And jam them, every one of them, forcefully up Michael Chertoff's ASS.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
The article says:
She says TSA agents then made the situation worse when they didn't know what to do about her juice and insulin. "She said, because we don't have the machines to scan the juice to make sure this is not an explosive we do have to do a full body pat down and search your through your bags."
So, here is what I don't understand: how did the pat-down help the TSA determine that the juice and insulin were not actually explosives?
Well, now we've shown terrorists how to get explosives on a plane: pretend to be diabetic and bring your explosives in juice boxes and bags marked "insulin." Combine "juice" with "insulin" and get on the 5:00 news.
So, as a member of the "flying public", you have reduced your expenditure towards that form of travel because of the scanners, and you are simultaneously claiming that the "flying public" doesn't care about scanners?
What?
but worded slightly different.
You can bet that massive government backdoor will be hidden in those slight differences.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
A few people posting on Slashdot != "the public" anything. People here tend to care greatly about privacy issues, "the public" not so much as a whole. Slashdot is not a good cross-section representation of "the public".
"But this one goes to 11!"
If enough people stop flying then the TSA will have a bunch of over-employment and beg Congress to search busses and trains.
I believe insulin pumps are worn externally and not surgically inserted
Yes, indeed. You need to have physical access to the device to change the insuline supply.
and it should be a very small matter to take one off to get through a screening
it's not trivial to temporarily remove one and put it back. As the device is indeed external and the insuline has to be delivered in the blood flow, you might guess that there are sterile needls involved and similar. not something that is easy to improvise in a security line. also, between shutdown and restart of the device once re-attached, there's also risk of manipulation errors.
So either:
- the doctor make sure the patient is properly educated and able to remove / re-attach the device (she's 16, but even younger kids can have Type 1 diabetes, and might not be able to do the whole procedure without parents supervision).
- the doctor provides all the necessary equipment to remove and re-inject the needle (bio-hasard box for used sharp object where to discard previous needle, sterile swipes, new steril needles, steril bandages, etc.)
- the doctor provides all the necessary documentation so the patient get proprer clearance to carry around the equipement past the security check, including the pointy needles.
Or:
- the doctors just write a letter saying that it's just better to "opt out" of the scanner (as she has the right to do any way).
or even for the entire flight.
Getting disconnected from the pump for prolonged periods of time without proper medical supervision isn't what's best for the patient's health, as the girl explains hefself in the video.
Removing the pump and relying on syringes for insuline, basically amount to a switch of medication, including an overlap period where the body still cointains leftovers from the previous type of therapy and new drugs are injected (or at least a completely different new therapy plan has to be followed). Such switches might require medical supervision.
It should be possible to design a pump whose on-baord computer is able to calculate and print out recommandations how to continue from that point on with a classical syringe). But it's just much more easy to recommand "opting out".
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
In fact, it's quite an achievement that the device was able to fail safely upon undergoing a stress from something that even didn't exist at the time the device was designed.
FTA: The device just stopped working.
Whereas, the pump could have gone beserk, and suddenly decide to dump the whole insuline reserve into the girl's blood stream and cause an insuline shock.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It's not hard to intimidate a 16 year old girl, even if you aren't an authority figure. Also, you can only expect her to be so insistent on BEING GROPED BY A COMPLETE STRANGER, which is how she would opt out of the scanner.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
>ADMITTED TO NOT WORK
Documentation:
Ben Wallace, a former employee of one of the company's manufacturing the scanner technology, announced on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "...in all the testing that we undertook, it was unlikely that it (the airport scanner) would have picked up the current explosive devices being used by al-Qaeda" and that "... it wasn't very good and it wasn't that easy to detect liquids and plastics unless they were very solid plastics (Airport, 2010)."
Yep, that's what he's saying. Neither you nor I have the clout to force the government into actually, you know, following the Constitution (what a concept...). But if the airlines start to feel the hit in their pocketbooks, you can bet they'll start lobbying for reasonable airport security.
And if you think not flying is tough for you, try living without the airlines where I live: I can't even *get* to the rest of the country without driving through Canada for three to five days...oh yeah, that's one way.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
After 9-11, do you really think the passengers of any plane is going to allow any idiot to hijack a plane ever again? You'll have grandmothers on oxygen rushing them before they ever get near the door to the cockpit.
As for bombs, bombs [that actually work in a manner that would provide a large enough explosion] would be easily visible on ordinary x-ray machines like those we sent our shit through all the time before 9-11.
Patting down children, harassing insulin dependent teenagers and scaring the shit out of old ladies is just theater. Terrible terrible theater.
.
One question lays to rest all this apologist nonsense. Was TSA formed in response to 1995 bombing? or 2009 plot? If you were concerned so much about "homegrown terrorism", why were all these measures taken in response to 911, an event that was NOT homegrown terrorism? That fact alone signifies that so-called homegrown terrorism was not really much of an issue.
As far as so-called homegrown terrorism is concerned, none the specific cases you cite, involve any flights apparently. I find that significant and interesting.
I mean the bombing of buildings... the shootings... it is pretty easy to get a gun(and by that extension explosives) in USA isn't it? What measures are there today to stop someone get a gun legally, and start shooting up people in crowded market street or in some mall? ... or in a bus? How exactly are your protected from occurances of such bombings or attacks at traffic stops, just by having scanners and pat-downs at some airport which is say, 40 kilometers away from the said spot? McVeigh carried out the attacks without any need of any conspiracy being discussed on internet or phone with anyone. So what exactly can all the internet/phone surveillance can do against such nutcases acting alone?
But I guess folks like you would rather not think logically and rationally and just drink the cool-aid, so that someone can take away your rights and tax money to give you a false sense of security.
There was a recent article on slashdot, where FBI itself cooked up a terrorist plot, went out of its way to motivate some criminal types by offering cash to plant bombs, and then arrested him and declared it to be a terrorist plot foiled by its diligence. And occasional murders by fringe lunatics/murderers happen in every nation, and have happened for centuries in fact. But it had to be you who had to come up and declared these murderers to be "terrorists" instead.
Key question : How do these security measures help, considering that a) a terrorist can easily plant a bomb just before the security check point and still blow up hundreds of folks in the waiting area. b) These machines are pretty much useless and have been repeatedly demonstrated to be so, with severe known flaws in them. c) Terrorists do NOT need to rely on a single method of attack. They can just plant a bomb at some political rally next time.
And to repeat, what are you hoping to achieve with all this futile circus? Save lives? Far, far more people die on road accidents. Where are the billions being poured into preventing that? Or is it that most of the 5000 at WTC were rich folks, whose lives are worth more than just random road-kills? You decide. It is all about proportions.
Only thing the government needed to do was put all foreigners entering the country under full surveillance. It should be easier than monitoring every single communication happening across the globe. But instead, they decide to declare war on its own citizens and you think this is fine.
Every electronic will fry from a large enough EM source. Assuming those rules are sane, it includes a power level the device should be able to handle. These scanners are not monitored by the FCC. This means they can output more than that power level.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.