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Kenneth Johnson dreads airport security. With two titanium shoulder replacements and an artificial knee, Johnson, 65, often has to endure pat-downs that require him to hold out his arms as agents frisk him for weapons. The five-minute ordeal is painful.

On Feb. 23, Johnson became the first passenger in the world to opt for a new screening procedure being tested in Phoenix. After a peek at the brochure, he stood briefly in front of a blue wall and raised his hands for a few seconds as he was scanned front and back.

In a booth 15 metres away, a security officer examined his image on a computer monitor and gave the all-clear. Johnson was on his way.

While the SmartCheck machine has brought protests from privacy advocates, Johnson gave it the thumbs-up.

"It was no big deal," said the Phoenix man, who still shudders at being strip-searched in a Nigerian airport in 1985.

"It's faster" than a pat-down, he said, a common security procedure for passengers who have been selected for secondary screening. "It's less pain for me."

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is the first airport in the United States to conduct a pilot program with the SmartCheck security scanner, which uses backscatter X-ray technology, a form of low-level radiation that penetrates clothing.

Its creator, Boston-based American Science and Engineering Inc., says the "personnel-screening system," which comes with a price tag of about $113,000, has been designed for prisons and government buildings as well.

Similar systems were developed in the 1990s, says vice-president of marketing Joe Reiss. But after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, his company presented a refined system to skittish U.S. security officials.

An early generation of images, however, proved too revealing, with bodies clearly defined. That triggered an outcry from such privacy protection groups as the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Transportation Security Administration, which oversees security in 425 U.S. airports, agreed that the pictures were invasive and asked for changes.

The company complied. The machines now blur some details and render an image similar to a chalk outline that still shows some body creases while promising to disclose "all types of threat objects," Reiss said.

Implants larger than small pins, such as Johnson's shoulder and knee replacements, would also show up, TSA officials said.

But security authorities will not divulge exactly what does and does not show up on a SmartCheck image and will not say whether the machine has nabbed any passengers carrying suspicious objects.

Authorities in New York and Los Angeles are believed to be considering their own pilot programs with the scanners, Reiss said.

No Canadian airports are using the machines, but "we're studying the backscatter technology in the United States," said Anna-Karina Tabunar, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, which is responsible for screening procedures at Canadian airports. Any new technology, she said, would require Transport Canada approval.

Tabunar said CATSA is aware of the privacy issues surrounding backscatter technology.

Those issues have the ACLU on alert. "We oppose the use of this machine as a routine screening tool," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU's Arizona chapter. "People should be balancing security with privacy."

For screening, Meetze favours the puffer machine, also known as an explosives trace-detection portal machine, in which a passenger is subjected to a series of blasts of air that dislodge and detect even microscopic particles of gunpowder or bomb residue.

The devices, which produce the sound and sensation of a fun house, are in use at dozens of U.S. airports, the Statue of Liberty and Toronto's CN Tower.

"This is a less invasive, less intrusive tool," Meetze said.

Still, the ACLU has taken no legal action against the use of backscatter technology while X-ray screening remains voluntary. Passengers who set off security alarms at metal detectors can still choose a traditional pat-down.

However, if the SmartCheck machine became mandatory, Meetze said, the ACLU would take action, fearing the device could be abused.

Company and TSA officials insist safeguards are in place.

TSA agents assisting passengers being screened and those viewing the backscatter images are the same sex as the passenger.

The agent reviewing the images sits in an enclosed booth and never sees the subject in person.

Paul Armes, TSA's federal security director for Phoenix, said the scanned image is erased once the passenger has been cleared -- allaying any fears that it might be circulated.

Controversy among passengers seems to have cooled.

When the use of the machine was first announced, some members of the public balked, repelled by the concept of virtual nudity.

Deborah Nieto, the security manager for Checkpoint B at the Phoenix airport, the only gate area using the SmartCheck machine, said about 80 per cent of passengers selected for additional screening now choose the machine over a pat-down.

Some people dislike being touched, she said.

Passengers also like the speed of the X-ray machine. Between 4,000 and 6,000 come through this gate area every day.

Winnipeg residents Janice and Larry Hirst, rushing through Checkpoint B, waved off the controversy.

She said she supports "whatever they have to do to be secure," as she prepared to remove her shoes and walk through a metal detector.

In February, Kelsi Dunbar, a 25-year-old employee of the Holland America cruise line, was the second passenger to opt for the SmartCheck as she left Phoenix for her home in Seattle.

Complaints she had heard baffled her. "I thought: How ridiculous people are being -- so nitpicky," Dunbar said. "I think there's a lot of hype around it," she added. "I don't feel it's an invasion of privacy ... I'm in favour of anything that makes airports safer and faster."

Armes dismissed early resistance as "fear of the unknown."

"It was a new technology," he said. "We satisfied security concerns we had and mitigated some of the privacy concerns."

Signs posted at Checkpoint B display the pictures it creates, illustrating both a male and a female image.

American Science and Engineering has also tried to allay health concerns over the backscatter X-rays.

SmartCheck poses no risk to children or pregnant women, Reiss insists. The radiation dose from a single scan is equivalent to what a passenger receives flying in an airplane for two minutes, he says, and is just a small fraction of the radiation from a chest X-ray.

At least one other U.S. company has developed equipment similar to SmartCheck. Rapiscan's Secure 1000 detects metal weapons, high-tech plastic and ceramic firearms, explosives, illegal drugs, precious metals, cameras, recording devices and other contraband or security threats, according to company literature.

Whether Phoenix permanently installs SmartCheck machines or a similar system is up to federal authorities, Armes said, but he believes the test period has been successful. "I think we've been satisfied with the pilot," he said.

The ACLU remains wary that the TSA has taken another step toward more invasive screening. "I have no doubt it will become routine," Meetze said. "We still have concerns."

Airport checks

To find out more about the SmartCheck machine and other screening procedures at U.S. airports:

American Science and Engineering, Inc., http://www.as-e.com

Transportation Security Administration, http://www.tsa.gov

To find out about screening and security procedures at Canadian airports:

Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, http://www.catsa-acsta.gc.ca