[Infowarrior] - FW: Baby is sent through X-ray machine at LAX

[Richard Forno]

(c/o WK)


http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-baby20dec20,0,4869996.story

By Jennifer Oldham
Times Staff Writer
December 20, 2006

A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport
put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on
items and slid it into an X-ray machine.

The early Saturday accident - bizarre but not unprecedented - caught
airport workers by surprise, even though the security line was not
busy at the time, officials said.

A screener watching the machine's monitor immediately noticed the
outline of a baby and pulled the bin backward on the conveyor belt.

The infant was taken to Centinela Hospital, where doctors determined
that he had not received a dangerous dose of radiation.

Officials, who declined to release the 56-year-old woman's name, said
she spoke Spanish and apparently did not understand English.

She initially didn't want the baby transported to a hospital, but
security officials called paramedics and insisted that the child be
examined by a doctor.

The grandmother and the child were subsequently allowed to board an
Alaska Airlines flight to Mexico City.

The rare incident drew attention to whether officials are staffing
often-busy security checkpoints enough to prevent such an accident.
And it raised questions about the danger of X-rays used to pick out
suspicious metal shapes in passenger bags, given the medical
community's warnings that even low amounts of radiation can build up
over a lifetime.

"Rather than focus on the radiation dose, which is a small amount, we
need to focus on why this happened, so it doesn't happen again," said
Dr. James Borgstede, a diagnostic radiologist at Penrose-St. Francis
Health Systems in Colorado Springs, Colo., and president of the
American College of Radiology. "Human beings weren't meant to go
through those things."

In the several seconds the baby spent in the machine, the doctor
added, he was exposed to as much radiation as he would naturally get
from cosmic rays - or high energy from outer space - in a day.

Security experts said the incident underscored a more widespread
concern about the screening process at LAX and other airports.

"The screeners are still reporting that they're being pushed," said
Brian Sullivan, a retired Federal Aviation Administration security
agent. "If a baby can get through, what the hell else can get
through?"

Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security
Administration, which manages LAX screeners, said the agency doesn't
have enough workers to constantly stand at tables in front of the
screeners to coach passengers on what should or should not be sent
through X-ray machines.

But in some cases, airlines contract with private companies to staff
the tables and assist travelers. The TSA will also occasionally put
employees at the tables if extra workers are available.

TSA screeners often ask passengers to put their coats, shoes, laptops
and other items into the bins, Melendez said. But they cannot observe
everything people place there, because they must monitor screening
equipment, he added.

Still, he said that the TSA works hard to educate passengers about
what carry-on objects require screening and that travelers must take
responsibility for knowing these rules.

"There's an obligation on the traveler to use some common sense," said
Larry Fetters, the TSA's federal security director at LAX. "If they
don't understand, they should ask somebody. If they ask us, we are
generally able to find someone who speaks that language and assist
them."

On its website, the TSA posts extensive tips for travelers, including
a section titled "Traveling With Children."

One item reads: "Never leave babies in an infant carrier while it goes
through the X-ray machine."

There are also signs posted in English and Spanish at ticket counters
and near security checkpoints warning passengers that they must put
metal objects, such as cellphones, pagers and car keys, into bins that
go through X-ray machines.

"This was an innocent mistake by an obviously inexperienced traveler,"
said Paul Haney, deputy executive director of airports and security
for the city's airport agency.

"This is only the second time in nearly 20 years that anyone can
recall a traveler mistakenly putting an infant through an airport
X-ray machine. Since then LAX has served more than 1 billion travelers
without an incident of this type," he said.

In 1988, an infant in a car seat went through an X-ray machine at LAX
Terminal 4. Also that year, officials at Winnipeg International
Airport in Canada accidentally sent a 2-month-old wrapped in blankets
through an X-ray machine.

The TSA said it is continuing to review Saturday's incident at LAX.

"We're trying to figure out what changes we can make, short of putting
up signs saying, 'Don't put your baby through the X-ray machine,' "
Melendez said. "We're trying to determine how we can make this not
happen again."

-=-

Radiation doses

The baby that went through the airport luggage machine was exposed to
less radiation than a passenger on a cross-country flight. Typical
radiation exposures*:

Luggage screener: 1

Cross-country flight: 5

Chest X-ray: 10

Mammogram: 30

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* Measured in millirems, which takes into account both the amount of
exposure and the biological effect of the type of radiation in
question.

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Source: EPA