Lawmakers are moving to protect airline passengers from the kind of outrageous treatment they receive when they enter airport security screenings. Those measures come as public opposition to the Transportation Security Administration's overbearing security protocols gather force.

Last week, I spoke to Lawyers.com about the legal options available to passengers who feel that they have been violated at these security screenings. There have been numerous incidents involving abuses by TSA personnel. As a California aviation accident attorney, I get my share of calls from people who believe that they have been violated by TSA officers at airline security.

Most complaints are related to intrusive pat downs. Unfortunately, options available to persons who want to avoid these pat downs are limited. If the airport has a scanner available, you can just use the scanner. However, if there is no scanner available at the airport, or if it is out of service for any reason, then you have no choice but to go through the humiliating pat down.

However, passengers who have tried to sue the federal administration over a pat down citing privacy invasions, have had less than complete luck. For one thing, the Transportation Security Administration is a federal agency, and is, therefore, immune from civil liability.

However, the full body scanners that are at airports could provide passengers with a viable claim. The body scanners are still fairly new, and there is very little information that is available about the kind of health risks involved with these scanners. There have been a lot of concerns about exposure to excessive radiation from the use of the scanners. In fact, the European Union has been so concerned about the health effects of the full body scanner that it has banned the use of certain x-ray scanners at security screenings at airports.