Traveling with Microscope Slides
 

I am flying AA to NYC tomorrow to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and I've been asked to hand carry some microscope slides to bring to our appointment.
I am wondering if I will have any trouble getting them though security and wondering if anyone had any experience with this or suggestions or help.
It is a small plastic box, about 3"x5" with 25 slides inside.
I guess at the worst I'd be forced to check my carry-on with the slides inside and hope for the best. Really don't want to risk them not getting there or being damaged.
Thanks!

Hmm. As long as they don't say "Ebola" on them... ;)

Seriously, I wonder if MSK can answer the question for you. Surely they have had numbers of people, couriers, etc. bring boxes of slides with them.

I will also ask someone I know to PM you with an answer; they should be able to secure an answer.

Thanks!

I'm convinced you'll be just fine with the slides - they are most unlikely to spot them, and even if they do, they do not fall into any category of things that are not allowed. After all, you would have been allowed to travel with the same tissue still inside you! Very best of luck with the appointment.

You will have no problem. Carry them without rattling as much as possible.

I've carried microscope slides many times.

[Redacted because poster above gave a definitive answer while I was typing]

Doc Savage has provided the answer. I'd definitely protect them so they don't rattle and you have no breakage.

I know pathologists who have had no extraordinary issues with TSA when carrying boxes of slides to/from Sloan-Kettering or M.D. Anderson. The boxes of slides are less problematic for clearing screening than a wheeled cabin trolley chock full of a dense stack of medical journals with high-gloss, coated paper.

Your pathology lab should have appropriate packing material to safely transport slides and perhaps they'd give you some. [It's rather within the range of ordinary for pathologists to send slides for additional consultation from one medical center to another, and even those containers most frequently clear the TSA just fine -- even as telemedicine is increasingly part of the picture some pathology lab habits just don't change that much.]

Would a rogue TSA agent think that broken glass could be used as a weapon? Even though beveled or ground, I've been cut on glass slides before. Breaking one could produce a knife-like edge. Just wondering.

That would be a time to ask for a supervisor, IMO.

After all, think of the damage I can do with a pencil, some pens, etc.

But the OP, under normal circumstances, should have no problems (a friend suggested bubble wrap is a great thing to have to protect the slide kit).

And those plastic forks can penetrate a neck and artery just as easily as the metal ones. They're actually just as sharp, if not sharper.

If asked (and doubtful that you will be), it is important to note that the slides are NOT biological specimens. They are fixed, non-pathological samples.

Rather tame stuff compared to the damage you could inflict with a duty free bottle (or a taxed wine bottle purchased airside at Vino Volo).

Not that logic ever featured heavily in the TSAs mindset...

Bubble-wrapped slides in a cardboard box works fine. Send it into the X-ray separately and it won't result in problems with the TSA.

The only way I can see the TSA being an issue if the slides are packed like suggested here is if a passenger is a TSA haraSSSSment target as indicated on the boarding pass at time of check-in. And even then, as long as one has some material to properly repackage the items as suggested here, there shouldn't be any issues.

It's very routine for slides to be transported even by FedEx (and sometimes even USPS) --talking huge numbers daily across the country -- where the packaging is most frequently anything but bulky. Even when such items are transported by doctors/patients/other passengers on flights, the TSA is never the problem when it comes to slides from the pathology labs; the problem tends to be with slide fragility or some other factors independent of screening by the TSA. The OP's pathology lab should be able to provide appropriate suggestions on transport conditions and perhaps even appropriate packaging material. Pathologists routinely send and receive slides by package/mail services, and it's pretty ordinary for those who are specialists in this field to carry them in carry-on or checked luggage on the way to meetings/conferences that pathologists use for CME credits or use to teach at places like the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (since closed). The Pathologists/lab almost certainly have appropriate packing material which they could provide or suggest using; but given what they charge they may as well add in the packaging material for no additional charge.

Thanks for all the replies; the slides are in a little plastic case with bubble wrap inside to keep them from moving. The case itself is in a padded envelope. This is how they were given to me by the lab at Moffitt here in Tampa. Hopefully I will have no issues. Thanks!

Is the plastic case or the envelope marked with who anything that indicates who did the path work.....?

In cases like yours it's important to keep time on your side and we're all hoping for a cure for you.

Bob H

Made it to NY with no issues! Went through the PreCheck line and nothing came up. The slides made it ok, each one has a label with a code, patient name, hospital name, etc. We also have pathology reports from two hospitals and I assume MSKCC will also make a report.

Hope the rest of your news you receive is that good !

Bob H

Made it back home as MSKCC confirmed diagnosis of a rare thyroid cancer MTC and we've scheduled surgery locally. Thanks for all the help and the good wishes.