"Airport security mistaking hand lotion as bomb material"

Friday, August 22, 2003

Airport security mistaking hand lotion as bomb material
Wall Street Journal


Here's something to chap the palms of frequent fliers. Security checkpoints
at airports sometimes are mistaking - as a bomb material - hand lotion.

Passengers at airports in Los Angeles, Hawaii and elsewhere, searched by the
"trace-detection" technology at security checkpoints, have been stopped
because the machines picked up a whiff of glycerines. The chemicals are
found in many hand lotions but also in the family of nitrates sometimes used
to make bombs. A few travelers have been delayed or have missed flights as a
result. But Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security
Administration, says there's no "foolproof way of preventing that." Other
everyday materials that could set off trace-detection machines include
residue from fireworks, nitrate fertilizer (sometimes found on golf shoes or
clubs), and a heart patient's nitroglycerine pills.

Incidents are somewhat rare, but David Stempler, president of the Air
Travelers Association, says travelers should put lotion in a zip-lock bag
and "avoid using hand lotions when handling luggage" at least until you get
through security checkpoints. "Passengers should be comforted to some degree
that these machines are picking up" these materials, says Mr. Stempler. It
"will protect them in the long run."


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