Advice on carrying injectable medication please
 

I am wondering if anyone has any advice in relation to carrying injectable meds.

I am going to be doing a RTW clearing customs in Laos (should not be a problem), Greece (would appreciate any advice) the USA (in LAX and again, any new advice).

I will have an authority from my consultant physician and the drugs also need to be kept cold (but I am intending to keep them in their commercial packaging until used).

A second question is does anyone know where I may safely dispose of used needles in Athens and LA??

TIA

I have flown with an epi-pen around the world, never had a problem, except once at SNA. US, Asia, Europe, no one questioned it......except SNA where I had to argue for 10min for a sup'v. The TSO was convinced it was a dangerous weapon.

Thanks, the only problem with these drugs is they are packed as the vial of powder, syringe of water and two needles.

An epi-pen is perhaps more recognised??

But I will be very happy if it is not a problem. I read another thread (old) where a situation like mine had been a problem and wondered if there was any update.

Check out this wallet. Made just for transport of injectables. I have heard many good reports on its ability to keep insulins and other injectables cool.

http://www.coolerconcept.com/

Good luck and safe trip.

i asked this question myself for my brother. the best bets were to either dump them at an airport or mall (most bathrooms have a sharps container) or take them to a hospital, drs office, or county/city health clinic. they should take them off your hands without a problem

I have traveled with syringes and medication for 11 years, and have never been stopped. You can always carry your own Sharp's if you are worried about disposal.

Injectable medications
 

I use insulin in pens and have never had any problem with either the pens or the needles. I keep them in an airline amenity bag and never do anything particular with them at security lines. They stay in my carry-on and have never raised an eyebrow or been inspected. Apparently contact lens solution and shaving gel are far more dangerous substances.

Thank you for your replies.

I just buy a small bottle of water and use that to store my used needles in (after drinking the contents) until I get back to a place where I can get rid of them safely. Any small sealable container will be fine. Worked for me in dozens of countries.

I travel with the same every 6 weeks - a large bag that holds 2 boxes of syringes and 2 boxes of sterilized water, a cooler bag with vials of powdered meds. I have only been questioned about them once, and even then, was waved on though when I produced the Rx label. Typically, it does not even get stopped going through the XRay - weird.

One more in the "never been stopped" group.

Mine is a statdose system that is sort of like an epipen but has two liquid filled chambers/injectors that you select with a wand thingy. It all sits in a plastic box flip-top as the "system."

No one has ever asked about it, it's never come out of my carry on roller, nor have i bothered to take the spare emergency set out of the pocket in my laptop case. Never had a problem.

Best as I can tell, they flat out do not care about needles in checked luggage, and I'm been going through with them for over 30 years. (I have type 1 diabetes.) The only time they questioned anything was back in the 1970s when I was using a non-disposable syringe and needle and had it packed in alcohol in a steel cylinder, and it was the steel cylinder which drew attention. In recent years most of my departures have been from LAX and TLH, and I think all the secondaries have been in TLH, never in LAX best I can remember (over the hill? what hill? I don't remember any hill).

I have a minimum of two bottles of insulin in my carry-on, and up to four (current and spare of two kinds of insulin). Occasionally I get told it will speed up the process if I separate them like toiletries, but that I'm not required to do so. I don't. At some times I may have up to about 30 ml of insulin preparation (97% water) and the amount I'm carrying doesn't seem to have any affect on whether I get secondaried. My daypack has lots of stuff in it, and this seems to matter more.

I think I've been secondaried for this less than once per 25 boardings, and as soon as they see the insulin bottle, they just shrug and go on. (Ironically not all insulin requires a prescription, but it's treated as such for screening purposes.) They look through the bag with syringes, insulin, test strips, meter, finger pricker, etc, and all they even look at is the insulin.

As for sharps, I just recap the syringe and toss it in garbage. This is controversial on some forums, but I've never seen one come apart in normal handling. You could just mark them and put them in a separate section of baggage or carry-on -- as I say, they will not trigger any investigation. Or take the suggestions earlier in the thread for dealing with sharps. I have very few to deal with, since I reuse them, which is safe with insulin but not in general with other meds.

Edward

Carrying Drugs?
 

Carrying Drugs in the flights is main problems for all Medical related persons. Some Countries are not allow some of drugs, because that drugs are not used by that people.