FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Does TSA really throw away the items they confiscate?
Old Dec 18, 2006 | 8:19 am
  #38  
eyecue
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Colorado
Programs: TSA
Posts: 2,745
Originally Posted by Flaflyer
Are you saying that TSA actually has a SSI directive on how to handle hazmats separate from ORDINARY LIQUIDS?

If TSA says "this item is hazmat and must be handled as such" and "this item is not hazmat and can go in the trash to a landfill without violating EPA regulations" then you have just proved three things.

1. TSA can differentiate between hazardous and nonhazardous liquids at a checkpoint.
2. A "ordinary liquid" as you say is a liquid safe enough to go to the landfill, does not pose a danger to the plane, and the entire Liquid Ban is a fraud.
3. Kip Hawley is an Idiot who flunked chemistry and got a political patronage appointment because of who he knows, not what he knows.
Hazmat is handled under title 49 and it is not SSI. What we are dealing with though is that somethings are inadvertantly discovered as hazmat as in the example of the leak. Some things are known as hazmat as in the case of butane refills for a cordless curling iron. The difference is in the fact that some of the carry on containers have a liquid in them and the container isnt labeled and we cannot open it or test it. TSA is faced with an enigma; find and remove prohibited items from carry on luggage that are in the form of liquids, dispose of the liquids in a manner that is common place and if it is hazmat that is unknown then so be it. You must know though that if it was hazmat and it was known then one of two people would have to deal with it. The airline or the passenger that had it. Of course there are limits on amounts that come into play. So we just deal with it move on.
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