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Lighters, Breast Milk Get TSA's OK

Infants Need Not Accompany their Moms

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 21, 2007

Beginning Aug. 4, some lighters and liquids previously banned from carry-on bags will be allowed again.

Disposable butane lighters (Bics) and refillable lighters (Zippos) will be okay but not torch-type lighters, which have larger and hotter flames.

Nursing moms can also carry containers filled with more than three ounces of breast milk.

TSA administrator Kip Hawley says the moves will save valuable time for screeners, who routinely confiscate more than 22,000 lighters per day. It will also save the agency some $4 million per year in disposal costs.

Lighters were banned after Richard Reid, later dubbed "the Shoe Bomber," tried to ignite hidden explosives in his shoes on a 2001 flight headed from Paris to Miami. Although Reid failed, and although he used matches instead of a lighter, the TSA imposed the lighter ban four years later.

Liquids were banned last August after authorities thwarted a British-based plot to use them in bombing flights headed to the U.S. A month later, the ban was partially lifted, with passengers permitted to bring liquids in three-ounce containers, sealed in a clear quart-size bag.

Although the TSA insists explosives remain the biggest threat to aviation, the United States was the only country that prohibited passengers from carrying lighters.

According to Kip Hawley, the move will be a boon to TSA’s security efforts.

"By enabling our officers to focus on the greatest threats, we are using their time and energy more effectively and increasing security for passengers," he said.

Relaxing the rules regarding breast milk also helps, the executive added. Although new rules require that breast milk exceeding the three-ounce limit must be declared to screeners, they no longer require the passenger carrying the liquid to be accompanied by an infant.

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