Airport scanner sees through your clothes

A controversial virtual strip search may be peeking under airline passengers' clothes at Pearson airport soon.

Up until now, Kelowna International Airport in B.C. was the only Canadian airport to try the technology that can see right through passengers' clothes to their bodies, showing everything from concealed weapons to piercings to non-metal explosives — to the outline of breasts and genitals.

Janelle Turpin, a spokesperson for Kelowna airport, told The Star Tuesday that their six-month trial was the first for Canada. Now, she says, they're looking at trying it out at bigger airports, including Pearson. The machine, created by RapiScan Systems of Torrence, Calif., would be used for secondary screening — after a person has set off a metal detector. The passenger could choose between the machine and a pat-down.

Turpin went through the full-body machine herself and said she preferred it to a frisking. "That makes me much more uncomfortable. I didn't find it evasive."

Guylaine LeCouteur, spokesperson for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, said Tuesday a report from the Kelowna trial is with the federal privacy commissioner and Transport Canada, to examine the equipment from both privacy and efficiency points of view.

She had no idea when a decision might come to try whole body scanning at major Canadian airports, including Pearson.

"Ninety-five per cent of the people who tried it (in Kelowna) preferred it," she said. "There's nobody touching them. It's simpler."

Scott Armstrong, a spokesperson for Pearson International Airport, said there is no indication when the scanner will be used at the airport.

"We have no idea...we haven't been told anything about it," he said.

The machine is installed at 19 U.S. airports as a primary screener, an alternative to metal detectors that is supposed to be voluntary.

Manchester Airport in Britain unveiled its first whole body imaging scanner Monday and announced its arrival Tuesday.

"Our passengers tell us that they don't like being patted down by security staff," said Sarah Barrett, the British airport's head of customer experience.

As for privacy concerns, Barrett explains that the security staff looking at the images are in a separate room, the images aren't stored and can't be forwarded and, most of all, "imaging technology does not allow security staff to see passengers naked."

"It's not erotic or pornographic," Barrett told The Star Tuesday. She's been scanned herself and found the image "dull and boring. You couldn't tell it was me."

"The image produced is a black-and-white, ghost-like outline without any distinguishing features, making it impossible to recognize people but simple to detect concealed threats."

The images do outline breasts and genitals, however, and that's already caused debate at the European Commission Parliament and among U.S. lawmakers.

U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz's bill to ban full-body screeners as a primary security device passed the U.S. lower house in June but has not yet been voted on in the Senate.

"Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane," the Utah congressman declares at the top of his web site.

Barrett stresses that the current initiative is just a trial. Among the U.S. airports using the device are the Rochester Airport in New York, Cleveland airport in Ohio and George Bush International Airport in Houston. Internationally, it's used at Amsterdam, Melbourne, Moscow and Helskini airports.

The scanner uses what's called Terahertz radiation, a band that lies between microwaves and infrared. The so-called "T-rays" carry much less energy than X-rays, which means that while they can penetrate a layer of clothing, they cannot penetrate materials such as water and metal. This also makes them much safer than X-rays. According to Barrett, 20,000 T-ray scans would be equal to one medical X-ray.

"It goes down well with frequent flyers," Barrett says. "They can leave their jackets and belts on and their money in their pockets."

Comments on the BBC News website included "absolutely disgusting" (Z, Birmingham); "how long will it be before the airport pictures are being trafficed on the net" (Angela Smith, Annan, Dumfriesshire); and "this is for our own safety" (Julie Harris, Farnham, Surrey).

The scan is voluntary and is designed to make Manchester more the airport of choice for travellers, Barrett said, because the scan eliminates the need for a "physical pat-down."

RapiScans in early October announced a $25 million contract with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration for the next generation of full-body scanners, which don't require passenger to turn around for a back view.