Traveling by air within the USA? Checking some of your luggage vs. carrying it with you on board? Consider printing out this posting and putting a copy in each piece of checked luggage:
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ATTENTION TSA!
If you did not change your blue nitrile gloves immediately before opening this bag, please do so now.
I know some of you don’t change your gloves for an hour or so, handling many bags, inspecting the contents of some of them and possibly transferring infectious materials from some bags into others, possibly depositing these infectious materials onto such items as breast pumps, breathing assist devices, bottles of prescription medications, baby food containers, etc.
I don’t want any infectious materials you might have on your gloves right now to contaminate items in my bag, so I’m asking, politely,
PLEASE CHANGE YOUR GLOVES IMMEDIATELY BEFORE SEARCHING THIS BAG,
IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE SO IMMEDIATELY BEFORE OPENING IT!
Also, feel free to remove this note from my bag and give it to your Supervisor, who will give it to his (or her) Screening Manager, who will give it to your airport’s Federal Security Director, who will pass it on to TSA-HQ in Washington, D.C., who may consider instituting the changing of gloves immediately before the start of each open bag search.
THANK YOU!
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Those of you reading this posting may wish to consider emailing a copy to others you know who travel by air, including relatives, friends and business associates, and you might also consider posting a copy of this to other discussion boards, and emailing copies to responsible organizations like (1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: cdcinfo@cdc.gov, (2) the American Academy of Family Physicians: contactcenter@aafp.org, and (3) U.S. MEDICINE: usmedicine@usmedicine.com, who may add their voices to yours in encouraging TSA to upgrade its practices of screening checked luggage, so as to lessen the probabilities of contaminating the contents of some bags with infectious materials picked up from the other bags.
ConcernedAirTraveler
Foster rationality, each day.
Challenge higher authority meaningfully,
because energetic resistance
lessens authoritarianism.
Intervene now!
Ps: Screeners are increasingly being warned by their management (as concerns about H1N1 grow) to protect themselves by using gloves, washing hands, coughing (if need be) with as much care as possible so as to reduce the risks of infecting coworkers, wiping down the stainless steel inspection tables with isopropyl alcohol frequently, etc. Face masks for reducing possibilities of infection by airborne agents, so of them sophisticated to the point of needed specialized training, are being offered as an option. In all of this there is no mention of possible risks to passengers of cross infection of luggage by failure to change gloves. Has this just been overlooked? Or, has it been considered and dismissed as too costly and too difficult to supervise? We don’t know! All that we know is that there is a risk that could be easily contained, and is not being dealt with!
Also, if you search Google for [FLU TSA AIR TRAVEL] or other key words like that, you'll find lots of congressional testimony, by unions and others, complaining that TSA is not doing enough to protect its employees. Anything about protecting the traveling public? No! If you want your bag to be searched by someone wearing clean gloves, perhaps the above notice, placed in your bags, is the only chance you might have!
Edited by ConcernedAirTraveler, 26 August 2009 - 06:21 PM.
