To scan or not to scan?

That’s the choice facing U.S.-bound passengers at Pearson International Airport as the airport rolls out Canada’s first full-body scanner.

The high-tech scanner, which uses radio waves to peer beneath clothing to scan skin surfaces, was put into service Wednesday at Terminal One, said Mathieu Larocque, spokesman for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

Passengers designated for secondary screening are offered the choice of a full-body scan or a pat-down.

Passengers headed into the security zone questioned by the Star on Thursday said they’d prefer a scan over a hand search by more than a 10-1 margin.

“It’s invasive when somebody touches me,” said Toronto resident Olena Kashuba, 30, on her way to Chicago. She said she didn’t fear the scans or the operators who viewed the images.

“They see like, what, 10,000 a day? I think they’re going to be bored with all those bodies. I like my body, so I don’t mind,” she said. “But touching? I don’t like.”

For Mike Shumate, on his way to Texas, it was all about convenience.

“I guess I’d choose screening, whichever is quicker, the shortest line,” he said. “At the end of the day, if it keeps us safe, I’m all for it.”

But 24-year-old Ashley from Barrie, who was flying to Florida, said a hand search was far preferable to a scan.

“I don’t like the idea of a body scan,” she said. “I guess it’s more invasive when they get to see everything.”

Posing for the electronic strip-search is voluntary, for adults only, and produces images seen by a screener “in a remote room,” said Larocque. “They have no way of seeing the passenger. The image they look at doesn’t have any identification. There is no name, no flight number.”

CATSA is rolling out 11 of the millimeter-wave machines at major airports “as we speak,” Larocque explained, although Pearson has the first. He couldn’t specify when others would arrive at airports in Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Halifax and Winnipeg. He said 30 more scanners are scheduled to be installed “later in the spring.”

Larocque, who went through a scanner himself during a pilot project at the Kelowna, B.C., airport last year, said the procedure “takes five seconds,” but passengers must first remember to unload pens, change and other objects into a bin.

CATSA is monitoring how the machines “affect the flow of passengers,” but there is nothing definitive yet, he said.

Star Travel Editor Jim Byers reported encountering the machine at the airport early Thursday.

“There was only one lineup with the machine,” Byers said. “People were told to step inside a large, glass-enclosed unit and raise their hands in the air.”

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Nobody appeared to be objecting and the lineup seemed to be moving normally, he said.

There was a huge security contingent at Pearson on Thursday morning, with dozens of uniformed workers and supervisors in suits managing the process, he said.

“The lineup to get to U.S. customs was 200 or 300 metres long, at least. Once inside, it was situation normal and people went through U.S. customs in the regular fashion. But after that, at security, they had people step on mats and follow a green sign that pointed folks to the proper security lineup.

“It was the usual, shoes and laptops out of your bag. But what was different, at least different from the pre-Christmas period, is the care they took going through my knapsack,” Byers said.

More stringent restrictions on air passengers worldwide went into effect after the aborted Christmas Day bombing attempt on a flight from Amsterdam bound for Detroit. Transport Canada promised earlier this month to introduce full-body scanners within three months at major airports.

The government transport authority relaxed some restrictions Tuesday when it announced passengers could bring a small carry-on bag, in addition to a personal item such as a purse or knapsack, onto a flight.

Yolanda Cousins told the Star she’d be happy to submit to a scan before boarding her flight to Florida.

“I want to make their day,” the 59-year-old Toronto woman said with a laugh.

With files from Lesley Ciarula Taylor