O'Hare, Midway, other airports get new kits to test powders for explosives
Tribune reporter
September 18, 2009
First
it was shoes, then water bottles and snow
globes.
Now dried baby formula, makeup, talcum and other
powders have joined the long list of seemingly
innocuous household items drawing closer
scrutiny from airport screeners as potential
security threats.
Federal authorities haven't banned powders toted
by passengers or set limits on the size or
amount they are allowed to carry on planes in
their hand luggage.
But the Transportation Security Administration
is now paying closer attention to common powders
and has outfitted O'Hare, Midway and other
airports around the country with new kits to
test them for explosives. Passengers should be
aware that after belongings are X-rayed, TSA
officers may test a small sample of any powder
in their possession.
The process typically is completed within a few
minutes and shouldn't bog down screening, said
TSA spokesman Jon Allen. The majority of
passengers won't be subjected to the added
tests.
Even so, the government's new security
directive, which took effect across the country
in the past week, is unsettling to some
passengers who already have seen the process of
flying turned upside down by the shifting rules
introduced since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"There are so many nuances and inconsistencies
that travelers are totally confused," said Jean
Covelli, president of The Travel Team Inc., a
Buffalo-based travel management company.
Covelli, speaking as she exited a plane in
Tampa, said she hadn't noticed any change in
security procedures during five flights she has
taken in the past week.
Neither had Tammy Cunnion of Chicago, who was
arriving at O'Hare from Dallas. She said she
wasn't aware of the powder screening but worried
about its potential. "Is it going to affect my
deodorant? I'm not giving up my deodorant."
Covelli said she was concerned about a repeat of
the travel ban on liquids, which was introduced
after United Kingdom authorities unearthed a
plot to blow up jetliners over the Atlantic.
That rule, imposed with little warning,
initially led to long security lines and added
expense for uninformed passengers, who were
forced to surrender lattes, lotions and other
liquids that were larger than 3.4 ounces.
Whether the powder rules lead to similar
unpleasantness for travelers will largely depend
on how they are enforced, experts said.
"It could make very little difference; it could
be a vigorous new regime of testing," said Jay
Stanley, a privacy expert with the American
Civil Liberties Union.
The TSA said the latest search wasn't prompted
by another plot. "There is no specific threat,"
Allen said. "We are aware that certain types of
powders have been used in [improvised explosive
devices], so they are an area that we want to
look at."
Security experts think the TSA may be trying to
get ahead of advances made in home-made bombs,
which are rapidly evolving and have been used to
great effect by insurgents in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Still, the measures are providing new fodder to
critics who think the TSA is wasting resources
on measures that hassle passengers but do little
to address real security threats.
"I tell you, if I'm a woman, I'm really angry
about this," said travel writer Joe Brancatelli.
He noted that common powders like makeup and
infant formula are far more likely to be carried
by women than men.
While powder isn't easily assembled into a
homemade bomb, "you can kill somebody with a
4-inch spike heel," which isn't banned,
Brancatelli said.
The two greatest security deterrents were
developed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11
tragedy without the TSA's input: the reinforced
cockpit door and passengers' refusal to sit by
passively during a hijacking, said Aaron
Gellman, a professor at Northwestern
University's Transportation Center.
Meanwhile, the TSA still doesn't screen all
airplane cargo for explosives, although that has
long been identified by experts as a
vulnerability.
Even the most sophisticated scanning equipment
won't completely eliminate the risk of a
passenger smuggling high explosives on a plane,
especially since detonators for such devices
also can be made of plastic, said Hans Weber,
president of TECOP International Inc., a San
Diego-based aviation consulting firm.
Weber, a technology and security expert, points
to the already long list of items banned or
subject to TSA searches and questions where it
will end. Common foods, like flour and sugar,
can be made into explosives under the right
conditions, he said.
Weber describes the current searches as
"security theater" that may deter amateur
criminals but won't faze sophisticated
terrorists or suicide bombers.
"I'm afraid as long as we base security strictly
on looking for the bad things, we will be too
reactive and really never be secure because
they'll think up new things," said Weber.
Weber contends that the only way to deter such
terrorists is to shift resources to profiling,
combining intelligence and study of behavioral
patterns to identify people who pose the
greatest threat.
But such an approach is strongly opposed by the
ACLU, which views profiling as an invasion of
privacy and a "fundamental mistake," Stanley
said. "You don't need to know who someone is,
you just want to stop them from bringing guns
and explosives on an airplane."
While the experts debate the best way to
approach security, passengers are growing jaded
of the demands placed on them.
Jill Rock of Chicago, who was waiting at O'Hare
on Thursday to meet a friend, said she wouldn't
worry about the latest TSA scrutiny as she heads
to Florence, Italy, next week for chef's school.
"I cook with flour a lot, does that count?" she
said. "Or maybe I'd pick up a powdered
doughnut."
Tribune
reporters Mike Hughlett and Dan Simmons
contributed to this report.