For once I got to agree here;)

It is a bit of a pain in the ... when dealing with people heading home. Many times I am told that they were allowed to bring the item here and I have to tell them since they are flying out of a Canadian airport, Canadian rules apply and as such their item is not allowed.

The carry-on baggage limits (IIRC recently rolled back) were one of those PITA things.;) That cost Canadian businesses dearly. Would be nice though if countries put up accurate/up-to-date how to fly to/from/through our country information for people coming in (are you listening TSA).

Most people wouldn't read it anyways.

As for my previous post, I was referring to small tools and knives.

Folks should read things like that just to make sure they have no surprises either entering or leaving a foreign country. I found out that Mexico had a limit on the number of thumb drives you could bring into Mexico, the hard way. Their customs people asked if I was planning on leaving any of them in Mexico, said "no, they'll all be leaving with me." Papers stamped and was on my way.

I agree with you 100%, people should do a lot of things before they travel. Doesn't mean they do.

Metamucil is Okay
 

I travel every week with my metamucil (physilium powder). The only times it was questioned when it was in the original canister container. (The TSO claimed it looked like a liquid on the Xray) I now carry it in a ziplock plastic bag - never a problem. I did have Mennan Speed Stick deodorant confiscated at FRA however.

LAS, Mar 29. A large jar of protein powder. It was pulled out on X-ray, got ETD tested, passed and that was that, no problem.

I did get a bit of a surprise, though--PVG was worried about my rollaboard. They pulled the camera bag out and ran it through the x-ray by itself. The problem was finally resolved when I fished out the batteries for my flash. (I carry a decent number of them.) He showed the boxes to the x-ray guy and that was the end of it.

It's much nicer over there--I think their scanning is at least as effective as ours (and probably moreso as both PVG and SHA were ETDing *EVERY* bag. (Gather up a group of people into a pen made of those retractable barriers. One tag is swiped on every bag in the whole group and then run through the machine. Only when the tag comes up clean is the group released on.)) and without the hostility. They know they are almost certainly hunting a false positive and their attitude is obviously focused on finding the cause rather than treating you as a bad guy.

Yes, it was HKG airport security doing the secondary hand search that found my powder. I had put it in clear plastic airtight container.

Since this doesn't seem to be a TSA rule but the HKG security says this is a US rule, any idea how I can talk to HKG security in the future. Will be a real pain each time I have to check this in.

You can't argue and you can't do anything about it. Frankly, every Asian airport I've flown out of to the USA, has it's own interpretation of what the TSA rules are that they are supposed to be complying with. In some cases as you found, it's even more restrictive. Beijing takes away water purchased from authorized vendors AFTER going through security, when they do a secondary check at the gate/jetway for flights back to the USA.

I can't say I entirely blame the personnel or these airports, as the TSA's own staff in the USA can't even keep consistency amongst themselves as to the current rules and procedures.