Agency plans to deploy more body scanners

According to a report in USA Today, the Transportation Security Administration is planning to end its use of so-called “puffer” explosive detection devices at airports “because the machines proved unreliable.” The agency has been testing and using the machines at a few dozen airports for about four years. Passengers step into a glass-walled chamber and the device blows puffs of air on them, and samples the air in the chamber to detect any molecules of explosive materials. According to the newspaper, TSA spent $30 million to buy more than 200 devices, most of which are still in storage. The report said TSA will replace the puffer machines with new body-scanner devices that can “see” through clothes and detect a wider range of threatening items than the puffer machines could. The agency will have 250 such machines in place by 2010, the article said.