Originally Posted by
NY-FLA
And you believe the equipment used in baggage at any airport can differentiate between explosive and benign liquids?
Not hardly. The x-ray tells us that there is a liquid in the bag, from there the TSO is the one that needs to determine if the liquid is dangerous. Some liquids require special transport containers, others are more dense, and since the chemicals that cause explosions are well known it is possible to test for them. Which is why we have ETD machines, test strips, and other technology to meet this requirement.
It's also really telling that any mention of costs from TSA or individual TSO's comes to what the testing equipment would cost the agency. Apparently the cost to pax of throwing away completely harmless liquids, of buying the airport $4 per bottle "screened" water vice the Albertson's $1.49 a skid brand, of the time spent (and expense to the airlines) of dealing with checked bags that would have been perfectly safe in the cabin is apparently not worthy of mention.
A more rational policy is apparently being implemented with powders. Perhaps someone could consider adapting this to liquids.
The TSA spends quite a bit of time, energy, and funding trying to tell passengers to NOT take liquids over a certain size through the checkpoint. If the folks ignore these attempts, refuse to read the signs, do not listen to the announcements, or think that they are a special case and must be exempt from the requirements, then is it really TSA’s fault? I think not. People have to become responsible for their own actions eventually, but has become far to common for people to try and shift blame for their own shortcomings instead of just taking responsibility for themselves.