Bodyshots: Confessions of the men with super X-ray vision

A former US airport security worker confirmed the suspicions of flyers by admitting that staff often laugh and gawk at images of passengers that appear on body scanners.

In a candid confession for the website Politico, Jason Harrington said: ''The [full-body scanners] were good at detecting just about everything besides cleverly hidden explosives and guns."

He confessed that many of the images gawked at were of overweight people, their every fold and dimple on full awful display.

''Piercings of every kind were visible. Women who'd had mastectomies were easy to discern and hernias appeared as bulging, blistery growths in the crotch area."

Another issue Harrington looked at was the confiscation of seemingly innocuous items from passengers, and intimate pat-downs.

''I confiscated jars of homemade apple jam on the pretence that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots - the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying," Harrington said.

He also alleged on Twitter that airport employees would often keep bottles surrendered at the checkpoint.

Harrington's confessions come in the wake of people starting to question the effectiveness of the measures in place.

''I'm not sure airport security has ever stopped anybody from doing anything anywhere," said Chris Yates, an international security consultant.

''Some of the measures imposed upon travellers - such as the ban on some sharp objects and the on/off requirement to remove shoes and belts - could be fairly described as being there for the sake of public relations," said Yates.

"These measures serve no purpose other than to increase the workload of hard-pressed security personnel, create confusion among passengers and perpetuate a climate of fear."

Harrington is currently writing a book about his experiences. He also writes a blog called Taking Sense Away.