Originally Posted by
DevilDog438
You contradict yourself in your own words. In one sentence, you state that it is people here screaming that the TSA treat liquids as hazmat. In the other, you plainly state that the TSA's reason for the liquid carnival is since anything over 3.4 liquid oz could be used as a component in a binary EXPLOSIVE - in discussions with several highly-qualified Hazmat Technicians, I have learned there are not very many chemical compounds that are part of a binary explosives recipe that are not themselves HAZMAT components regardless of size of item..
The key to what you say is that you learned that there arent many of these, but there are some. It is the people on this board that keep saying that TSA should treat them as a haz mat if they are going to not allow them on the airplane. To this I say that it is not practical and not required by law.
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Your hazmat training must have been significantly different than the National Fire Academy approved Operator level (first responder...the actual Hazmat techs are trained at least to Technician level) course that I went through as part of my required training at my volunteer department. That course, which is supposed to train first responders to recognize potential hazards and their initial mitigations, maintains that if I have the remotest thought in my head that the material(s) in question may be Hazmat, I am to initiate a Hazmat response. Call the cavalry, request all the manpower and specially-trained personnel and allow them to PROPERLY and SAFELY identify the component and the APPROPRIATELY dispose of it..
Congratulations on all your training. I have had the same as you have for the same reasons that you have. You arent likely to have that response to a class 3 and a class 8 when the amounts that dont have to be marked are less than 30L and 60L respective to the substance that I am talking about.
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The liquid carnival is not a deterrent. As others have mentioned, there is nothing in this asinine policy to prevent several people from carrying upwards of 20 oz of fluid, EACH, into the sterile area and recombining them prior to boarding an aircraft...absolutely NOTHING, zip, zero, NADA. Don't give me the standard BS of the Explosives Detectors catching it...the only time the TSA uses the damn thing is when the X-Ray tech detects an "anomaly" in their routine scans. Given the number of times they haven't said a damn thing when I have forgotten to remove my INHALER from my bag...needless to say, I still profess this is an asinine, WORTHLESS carnival that is a total mockery of even the SHADOW of security.
I understand that you feel that this is worthless, I stated that I doubt the process myself, in fact I said that someone in high places must be watching too much Jame Bond. The fact is that if TSA is checking liquids like they are supposed to be then the substances would not get through. Could you think for a minute that an inhaler has a pretty common x-ray signature and the operator knows what it is?