Airport Avenger: Tips and Top Secrets for Airlines, Airfares, Fees, Security and Cancelations

Passing through airport security is getting more difficult and taking more time as the government takes closer and closer looks at what you’re wearing, what you’re carrying, what you look like and what your name is.

Full-body scanners are being used at more airports. Some people have privacy and health concerns about these things. In the U.S., passengers have the option of getting a pat-down instead of going through a body scanner. Not so at some airports overseas.

Scanner images are not exactly pornographic. Still, the aim is to to see through your clothes.

The TSA says agents looking at the images do not see the passenger being screened, but can alert other agents to stop someone if necessary.

Most passengers headed for the U.S., including from Canada and Mexico, get body scans or pat-downs and their carryons are searched.

Airport security is picking up in the U.S. following a couple of high-profile but unsuccessful terrorist attacks.

More body scanners are being set up, and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents are checking more people for signs of explosives, swabbing hands and bags for traces of tell-tale chemicals, even taking samples of what passengers are drinking as the wait at the gate.

There’s no doubt that there are dangerous people in the world who have to be stopped. But you can get through security faster, and reduce the odds that you’ll be called aside for a bag check or pat-down, by planning ahead and using common sense.

Should you worry about the amount of radiation you're exposed to from body scanners? Possibly. The Transportation Security Administration uses two kinds of body scanners--backscatter and millimeter-wave. Both use extremely low levels of radiation. Just enough to peak under your clothes.

Most scientists agree there's no radiation danger from millimeter wave:

• Millimeter-wave scanners use radio waves instead of X-rays.

• The energy projected by millimeter-wave scanners is 10,000 times less than that in a cellphone call.

• Humans, and everything else in the world, generate millimeter-wave energy. We're exposed to it every day.

Backscatter technology is different. It uses low-level X-rays. While it's true that you get the same amount of radiation exposure from one scan that you get while flying for a few minutes, some scientists think a small number of people may be very sensitive to radiation. Even a relatively small dose from a scanner, they say, may be lead to skin and other cancers in these individuals.

If you're concerned:

• You can ask a TSA agent if the scanner is millimeter-wave or backscatter.

• You don't have to go through a scanner. You may get a pat-down by a TSA officer instead.

• Remember children are more vulnerable to radiation than adults.

Q: Is there any way to fly without going through a security screening?

A: Yes. There are no security checkpoints at the general aviation terminals used by private planes and charter jets. The pilot is responsible for making sure no one gets on board with anything dangerous. You will avoid a security screening if you charter a plane, but don't expect cheap fares. A typical charter flight from, say, New York to Chicago might run around $15,000 or so. One way.

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