TSORon

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...eds/index.shtm

Glad to help

IslandBased

There doesn't seem to be a mention of contact lenses or solutions. It leaves a very ambiguous area where corrected vision is concerned unless perhaps there is a prescription involved.

iahphx

The closest is "saline solution" and "eye drops": "All prescription and over-the-counter medications (liquids, gels, and aerosols) including KY jelly, eye drops, and saline solution for medical purposes."

rocky

Note that since this "change" that I was told about at SFO Terminal A, I have flown out of OAK and JFK with no issues carrying a large container of contact lens solution.

At OAK, they did the test strips. JFK, they just let it through.

UshuaiaHammerfest

Glad to have found this thread. Faced the same problem when flying out of LAX a few weeks ago with my girlfriend.

Ordinary contact lens solution causes her an adverse reaction, so she uses Clear Care, a hydrogen peroxide based solution. She has traveled with 12 oz bottles ever since the liquids ban. The smaller travel sizes are not economical and just don't last on trips longer than a couple of days.

LAX TSA used the test strips and confiscated it (rudely and obnoxiously, but that's another topic). They said if she had a doctor's prescription, then she could travel with it. I pointed out that hydrogen peroxide is specifically NOT on the prohibited items list. The TSA checkpoint manager reminded me that H2O2 was one of the ingredients of the explosives that the liquid bomb plotters planned to use. I informed him that H2O2 was only unstable in certain concentrations, and that at the 2% concentration of Clear Care, there was nothing unstable about it, nor could it ever become concentrated enough to become an explosive. Apparently the TSA scientists failed high school chemistry.

So my girlfriend got a letter from her doctor indicating specifically that it was a medically necessary item that she needed to travel with. Sure enough, TSA confiscated it again.

We're out of ideas. It's an over the counter item so she can't get an actual prescription for it -- all she can get is a doctor's letter.

Does anyone know how to get around this? How was TSA able to confiscate a medically necessary product that a doctor specifically said she needed?

And to whom do we send the bill for the replacement bottles?

Boraxo

Thanks to this thread I brought 12oz bottles of both Clear Care (f/k/a Aosept) and Saline (actually only 1 oz remaining) and no problems at SFO though they went through the silly test procedures.

Sorry to hear H2O2 is supposedly banned. Guess I will have to place that one in checked luggage in the future or bear risk of loss.

slidergirl

Glad I checked in on this group this morning! I also have to use Clear Care. I'm flying out Thursday SLC-JFK, then JFK-CAI on Friday. I'll be gone for 20 days. I guess I'll put a big bottle of CC in my checked bag and one in my carryon. I'd rather have too much CC than none at all. I'll stop by my opthamologist tomorrow and see if I can get her to write up a "prescription" for my CC.

iahphx

I wonder if there's any sort of "prescription like" sticker you could slap on the bottle. That would likely be enough.

Strange problem.

EDIT: Or what about just transferring the solution to a "regular" 4 oz. contact lens bottle and putting it (and perhaps multiple bottles if you need it) in your plastic baggie?

erictank

Contact solutions are a form of eye drops. They are also over-the-counter medications, required for medically-necessary items (ALL contact lenses are prescribed by eye doctors - even novelty ones, for God's sake! They go in your *EYES!*), and are thus themselves medically-necessary. The fact that anyone should need to explain this to a frakking screener just blows my mind.

Just had a semi-evil thought - if I should have to fly anytime in the near future, I should wear some of my "special" lenses - blackout, UV-glow, Wildfires. They're prescription vision-corrective lenses - if I don't happen to have my regular ones... Don't know if I could keep a straight face while I went through the line, though.

erictank

It's still CLEAN, Ron, unless you take the cap completely off. Do THAT, and let TSA dip one of their test strips in the bottle, as they've been documented to have done elsewhere, and that WHOLE BOTTLE IS WASTED, because it's no longer safe to put the fluid in your eyes . No, the cap stays on, thank you *VERY* much - your fellow screeners can figure out how to *PROPERLY* do their jobs, instead, and save us ALL a little time, for a change!

erictank

What would lead you to believe they ever got that far to begin with?

By their own rules, they're NOT - which, as you've observed, does not stop them from BREAKING their own rules and doing so anyways. I hate to suggest you do something which will draw attention, be viewed as "obstructive", and may not work anyways on a case-by-case basis, but: stand your ground, call for a supervisor, call for the FSD, call for an airline rep, and insist that they pass your medically-necessary, explicitly-allowed bottle of contact lens solution. As noted, it's EXPLICITLY ALLOWED, and she HAS TO HAVE IT. Taking it away from her is, effectively, practicing medicine without a license, which is a felony, as well as a violation of their own rules. Make them do what they're supposed to.

You could TRY submitting it to TSA, via the laughably-named "Got Feedback" email (which eddress I do not have at hand), or via one of the complaint/comment forms. You will *NEVER* be reimbursed for it, I guarantee - you'll almost certainly never even see a response to your complaint. Send it anyways, and include a copy to your Congresscritters and local media as yet ANOTHER example of TSA's frakking idiocy, powertripping, and violation of their own publically-published rules.

MSY-MSP

I have done something like this in past for OTC drugs. You can get a prescription (legit) for any OTC medicine. You simple need to have your Dr. prescribe the medication OTC or otherwise on standard script. Then you go to the pharmacy and pick the OTC items off the shelf and go to the prescription drop off counter.

Once there explain to the pharmacist that you have a prescription for the items that are OTC, and need to have the prescription labels attached to the actual product. They will do this so long as you have a prescription. They may look at you funny, but they can do this.

I have had a Dr. prescribe me "Crest toothpaste" so that i could get it on back when they allowed medically necessary items on board. The only thing he told me was that so long as the thing appeared in his system he could prescribe it.

Remember that OTC means that the item is available without a prescription, but it doesn't preclude a prescription for the item. Also remember that if you are dealing with contact lens solution you will need to get a prescription from an MD or DO and not an OD. Most OD's have limited to no ability to prescribe anything other than a select few items.

Skymonster

I find by far the easiest way when I travel, is to take daily disposable lenses. They're not that expensive and the little fluid bubbles they come suspended in don't seem to show up on the scanners. I never even take them out of my main carry on bag at security screening. So far I've never had the bag pulled for "hidden" liquids, and on the occasions my carry on has been hand checked for other reasons, the few strips of contact lenses have not caused any issues.

A

TSORon

“Clean” and “Sterile” are two totally different things eric. And the point being made in this thread concerned “Sterility”, not cleanliness.

As for my fellow screeners and their ability to do their jobs properly, well your not a screener so while your opinion is “interesting”, its still an opinion. You have the choice eric, you can either undergo the indignity of having your solution tested or you can pack it in your checked luggage. Its totally up to you, and don’t let anyone tell you different.

TSORon

Wow, what an interesting point of view. So, if a doctor said it was necessary for you to have your favorite hand grenade with you at all times you think the TSA should allow it through the checkpoint? Oh, no, I get ya, they should be able to bring any liquid bomb component they like as long as they can claim its “medically necessary”.

Sorry to once again bust your bubble eric, but H2O2 is a well known oxidizer, and therefore a fairly good component for liquid explosives. And there is not a test available to the TSO on the checkpoint that can tell one what the concentration of the liquid is. So, we are back to either pack it or leave it.