Pump vs. Airport Security

So in the past 36 hours I've been through airport security twice on my way to and from Chicago for some business meetings. I can say that they've made several improvements between Canadian and US customs with respect to the automated processing of the customs forms, which is nice to see as it will hopefully quicken things at the airports moving forward. Kudos to them for that!

It seems that every time I go through an airport these days that new body scanners are cropping up everywhere. In Toronto they have them installed after you process through US Customs, but they weren't being used yet. In Chicago everyone has to go through one. Usually in these cases I can identify with them that I have a medical device that can't go through the body scanner, and get the usual metal scanner, pat down, and hand swab test before I go on my merry way.

Today however was different. I put my things to go through the X-Ray, stepped off to where the metal detector was instead of the body scanner line, and was immediately told I had to go through the body scanner. I told them I wore an insulin pump, and that the pump manufacturer says that I cannot go through them for fear of harming the device that keeps me alive.