[unnecessary personal comment removed]

That's why the only responsible, ethical thing for the TSA to do is to change their gloves every single time, regardless of what the groping victims request or fail to request.

Why I used the terms "Responsible", "Ethical", and "TSA" in the same sentence defies all logic. Just shoot me like a lame horse. Please, put me down now!

 

Bart, I for one see absolutely nothing hidden about your agenda.

 

You expected something else from a stupid and insensitive agency that employs stupid and insensitive people?

 

[Bad info deleted]

I am concerned mostly by the in the belt/in the collar checks. A little crude to think about, but folks pull up their pants, tuck in their shirts and cinch their belt at the water closet before washing. Contaminants are most easily transferred to the waistband as that is where the "dirty" hands pull up the pants. If the TSO is doing any in the belt checks, new gloves are a necessity.

 

Tell it like it is, brother, TSA thrives off euphemism, and plain talk will bring them down.

 

Using hand sanitizer on gloves breaks them down not to mention something local health departments do not condone and have shut down business for less. Such actions I have hospital epidemiologist having kittens when they witnessed such acts and was a terminal move on the nurses employment.

 

Fixed

 

Don't worry ink I hear that alot and it's surprising how quickly hand sanitizers break gloves down especially the higher alcohol content gels/foams.

 

I confess I cannot imagine a health provider NOT changing gloves except on a patient's request. Certainly the examinations TSA does approach those of a medical examination in terms of contact with the "patient."

 

I can't imagine an actual health care provider hiring any of the TSAs monkeys.

 

Peril - changing gloves is a autonomic instinct for me, and engrained so much it's lime breathing and will remind people (partner, trainee, bystander) if they haven't gloved up or changed them when they should.

Same goes for wearing the right size for which most clerks don't wear the right size and it drives me nuts especially on the grope and just proves how much it's a farce as you loose any tactile feel with gloves on the wrong size (to big).

Well where I work we've stopped interviews or turned loose new hires with separation papers if we find out they've worked for TSA. Then again we do in depth background & reference checks before making offers to new hires so only once learned that info after they have been hired.

 

Just curious how much money you're willing to invest in this. YOU are the ones paying for these gloves with every ticket purchase and every budget approved by Congress. I think TSOs change gloves frequently enough to mitigate the Cooties threat you and others are so scared of. I don't think this needs to get carried to such an extreme. That's just my opinion. And just to give you a little insight, when I was a private contractor screener, our company didn't spend a dime on gloves. We begged, borrowed or stole them from the airlines and made ONE box of gloves last two or three days. At other times, we supervisors would throw in to buy a couple boxes from the local drug store.

 

Are you serious?

I bought 2 boxes of 200 count nitrile gloves at Costco for ~$20.00. That makes them about $0.05 each. To me, that's a much better investment than the Nude-O-Scopes, tin-badges, blue uniforms, and countless of other "investments" made by the TSA.

Of course the real cost-savings answer is to just eliminate the touching and render the use of gloves a non-issue.

 

If that is the problem, I will furnish the gloves for my screening. Consider it it my contribution to the war or terror.

Furthermore, you are correct that I am paying for it. I expect it to be done safely, respectfully and cleanly. And, since when is the TSA worried about cost? "TSA= Thousands Standing Around" is an ongoing joke as humor, at least the funny kind, has basis in fact.

Finally, I am not worried about "cooties." I take medication that reduces my immunity. I am worried about getting very sick and possibly dying from contracting a disease that could have been prevented by good sanitary practices. Now, I will admit that it is not high on my list of worries, but it should not even be there in this case.

Let me suggest that each of us that are frequent flyers throw an unopened box of gloves in our carry on to donate at the checkpoint. My bet is that they would get thrown away. Better yet, let's mail them to the FSD at our airports and say that the reason they do not get changed is that the screeners say that the government can not afford them.

Bart, the more I think about your post the ridiculouser it gets.

 

The agency that squanders billions on voodoo science dares to claim they can't spare 5 cents per unconstitutional physical assault to protect their victims and the general public from epidemics of MRSA, ringworm, scabies and lord knows what else?

ZERO CREDIBILITY + EPIC FAIL = TSA

 

What I hear you saying is that TSA is too cheap to change gloves in between running its fingers through the hair and underneath the clothing of passengers. Let's see about that.

I checked on Ebay and found 10,000 nitrile gloves listed for $650, or 6.5 cents each. Let's assume that volume purchasing could get that price down to 5 cents each, or 10 cents a pair. Now, if we assume TSA is doing 60,000 searches a day which require a glove change, that works out to $6,000 per day. At 2,000,000 passengers per day, the cost of glove changing works out to be 1/3 of one cent per day per passenger. Of course, this being a government program, so let's assume the gloves cost 10 times their value on the open market. That turns out to be $60,000 per day, or 3 cents per passenger.

 

Hmm, you are not a private contractor now. You have the authority to basically touch anyone, anywhere on their person. As such you owe it to those people you touch to maintain basice sanitary measures so as to not act as a disease vector and pass diseases from one person to another.

 

I suspect the reason for not changing the gloves automatically is the same reason that dosimeters aren't allowed, and that is to keep the public as ignorant as possible about the implications of the TSA search regime.

 

Yeah, really, what's with the "private contractor" bs, Bart? Private contractors weren't sticking their hands down people's pants. The TSA started that. Though now that millions of Americans have been conditioned to accept this and see nothing wrong with it, that day, too, will come.

 

The TSA has all ready wasted millions on the NoS that don't work, so another $100,000 on gloves a year is hardly money poorly spent.

I'm immuno-comromised as well. I don't want germies from someone else all over me. Change your damned gloves all ready. If you care so much about the public you're supposedly protecting, you'd stop griping about it and just do it.