New TSA Security Procedures, effective Oct. 29

Anybody watch “THE EVENT” , new hit tv show on NBC on Mondays?..Maybe they are afraid we pump-porting diabetics are from an alien race, and can make the plane dissappear and land somewhere else…(LOL)

God Bless,
Brunetta

Flying within Canada easier ?? I flew last week from Kelowna, BC to Edmonton , AB and back …both International airports . I showed my MM 522 pump , located clipped on my waist band of my jeans to Staff , where I had to " deposit my hand luggage, jacket into a basket …Staff called out to person at other side of scanner : " insulin pump " …I walked through , no alarms . This procedure has been the norm for me . Swapping has happened , while going to the States ; my hubby( living without D.) was swapped as well …I bussed from Vancouver to home on Wed ; travelled by Greyhound …hand luggage was searched… I do not feel uncomfortable by these procedures…I tell me :" times have changed " and leave it at that .

I’ve always been leery of scanners of any kind with my pump. Several years ago I was leaving a library and walked through whatever scanner they were using and it set off an alarm. At the same time my pump alarmed and shut down and wouldn’t restart. I think it was my Minimed 508 but maybe it was my Cozmo, anyway I called tech support immediately and they had never heard of library scanners causing damage but did say that pumps can fail from various radiations even though they protect them from most. They did say that maybe that library scanner was set too high, and it was possible. Whatever the radiation from that scanner was it fried the pumps electronics immediately. Anyway they fedexed me a new pump overnight and ever since when I fly (rarely) I insist on hand inspection.

Eeek!!! Ok, being that I am a Muslim woman who wears a scarf I have had ALL sorts of things happen. I have always been prepared for going through security (papers from doc and notify them of what is where before going through) and I am always traveling with my children. It has ranged from people just waving me through (not safe at all) to making me walk through the detector with my bangle bracelets on and then patting me down on the other side without being wanded first. EVEN THEN the crazy woman didn’t even look at or touch my pump but jerked my ponytail under my scarf asking me what it was and aked me to lift up my scarf to which I said I would do if given some privacy. She just let me go then. So, even when they act like they are taking precautions they are doing it wrong. Maybe there isn’t humor in this sort of thing, but I had to chuckle when my breast pump was tested for explosives.

I can only imagine what I will have to endure come Christmas break when I am traveling home to visit family in the Midwest.

My opinion…I’m all for being safe, I lived in NYC and saw and felt what happened, but they are neither consistant nor smart about all of this. It is a real crap shoot from airport to airport.

Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security” Ben Franklin



Another way that this country is screwing over Diabetics, intruding on our medical condition like we are criminals…



I dont know… I feel violated… this crap will not make things safer. It will just “appear” as if we are safer. If people want to do bad things they will find a way. It will just make us appear as sheep accepting these intrusions on our privacy and being singled out as a security threat just because we have a medical condition. They are basically forcing people to go through the body scanners which is even a greater invasion of privacy and our devices shouldn’t be exposed to that crap… I also feel as if being diabetic and with a pump im now being punished for doing what is right for the safety of my pump…just because its easier to completely expose my virtually naked body and pump to their viewing… I had a fight a few years back at the national aquairum… MANDATING I Xray my insulin pens and I was like. No… you can search me … and she was like. I wont let you in unless you xray them… (so i reluctantly did)… There will be more stuff like this forcing us to do whatever they want…

You forgot the I Love You after your basically being sexually harassed, in the guise of “security”

I get to look forward to flying to Albuquerque and back to Philadelphia in the beginning of December; no pump - just insulin and a CPAP; too bad bus and train travel takes so long… The joy of flying certasinly is not there…

Could we consider, as a group of concerned diabetic citizens, writing a letter (or many!) to TSA voicing our concerns over their security measures and the way they are treating our medical condition as a national security threat?

It’s pretty fast.

Just flew through IAH in Houston this weekend and had no problems going through security. I pod, so I don’t set off the metal detectors but I do separate out my insulin supplies and they didn’t blink. My mother (who is not diabetic), on the other hand, got the fully “aggressive” pat-down out of Little Rock. I’m chalking this up to the large airports don’t bother and the small airports do the full security check b/c apparently everyone is a terrorist to them. So I think it’s really more of the same. Flying out through Orlando which I hear has totally heightened security, so I’ll be anxious to see…

I am glad this was posted!!! I am flying to SFO next week for a conference and the last thing I need is more greif at the security checkpoint. I don’t care if I have to get screened but, let me know in advance so I can plan for it. I have no problem with rules. I do have a problem when you tell them you are diabetic and you have to travel with a laptop also then they want to pull apart everything!!!

Security at airports these days seems to be a lot like the theft alarms at the exits of Walmarts…, they only go off when your NOT stealing something. Let that UPS package through with electrical components and bomb materials in them though, More reason to stay home. Do you think you will be seeing them pat down and swabbing non-Caucasian individuals or would that be defined as racial profiling thus threatening their jobs due to possible complaints or lawsuits?

Interesting comment Hockey Dad. I am non-caucasian, an african-american, in fact. I do not expect to be padded done any more nor any less than anyone else at major airports. If I am flying out of very area in which the residents are not familiar with seeing people of color, I am sure I WILL get the ful ltreatment , diabetic or not. And yes Racial profiling does exist,particularly if you are a male of color. Just ask my dad, my brothers, my cousins, all of my boyfriends I have ever had to date, and I am 55, my co-workers. It goes , on and on and on: All have had accusatory , questioning encounters with the police because they were percieved to be “In the wrong place at the worng time’”: ALL of them… They have also had positive encounters with police officers, aas well. But the negative accusations DO stand out , when I know the quality and character of these gentlemen.,.Do not mean to be hypersensitive, but Barack Obama’s election did not change the “fear of black males” perception of many Americans… I rest my case and my honest opinion. asw for ther airports,

WE will ALL get screened, sometimes more, sometimes less.



God Bless,

Brunetta

It’s the liquid – the insulin – that makes the pump dangerous. After all, you could be pumping “something bad”. Sarcasam intended. Totally ridiculous, but that does appear to be the thinking behind it.

Brunetta – Astute observation! The problems, though, go beyond just the screenings, to the attitudes and behaviors of the people working for the airlines. For instance, I decided to fly to Chicago shortly after I started insulin, just to see what would happen. I didn’t have far to go, and in all reality, could have driven, but wanted to see how things would work in a domestic airport before I accepted my brother’s invitation to spend some time with his family in Germany. When I boarded the connecting flight, I found myself in the back of the plane (not a problem for me) and overwhelmed by someone’s perfume, cleaning chemicals, or something else that made me start to wheeze and cough (I have asthma). The attendent, a very young man, was sitting in the aisle at the tail of the plane, listening to me cough while he talked on his cell phone…to his mother. That is, until I was coughing so much and so loud that he had to hang up and actually do his job. I explained the situation and asked for a seat reassignment based on health needs. His response? “You need to get off the plane and take a different flight! There are no other seats available! Why are you flying when you are SO sick??” He didn’t even try to find a different seat for me, didn’t get the albuterol inhaler which are included in ALL medical emergency kits on airplanes, didn’t even bother to follow up with me until we landed in Chicago! By that time, I was furious (as well as feeling extremely sick and humiliated) and demanded to see a supervisor to report this person. As I saw it, he made the following errors. He (1) was making a personal phone call while on company time; (2) ignored/dismissed a paying customer’s obvious need; (3) offered only what should have been the solution of last resort; and (4) humiliated a paying customer. The supervisor’s response? “We got you here, didn’t we? That’s ALL we are contractually obligated to do for you. Since you don’t seem to understand that and respect US, don’t ever bother flying on my airline again.” Talk about being humiliated – again. Oh, and they lost my luggage for a while, too. The final insult? This company ended up denying me the right to board for my return trip, forcing me to take a bus home – at my expense. When I called the customer service line to complain about how I, as a passenger with a medical disability, was treated, my story was met with horrified silence, a promise to “research” the complaint (uh huh), and an offer of a voucher good for $100 off of a ticket on another flight on their airline. I allowed them to print the voucher, but asked them why, after all I had been through, I would EVER want to fly their airline again. I was treated with far more respect by the people at Greyhound.

I think the reason your comment struck such a chord with me is that I agree, there are still inequities in the system. These problems are not just racial, but extend to a number of the “isms” – i.e. sexism, able-ism, homophobism, etc. I do think it’s, in part, a desire to flaunt power over someone else, someone who appears to not have the power to do anything about the situation. I maybe Caucasian, but I’m female, short (4’8"), and weigh less than 100 lbs. Perhaps a tangential issue society ought to be investigating or considering is the tendency of humans to bully one another well beyond the teenage years.

People with pods replied to this discussion.

Orlando was more of the same. I didn’t see anyone get the pat-down at security and I had no issues whatsoever! So my advice is that if you’re flying through a small airport, be prepared for an aggressive security check, no matter what. If you’re going through a larger airport, expect the same as before the “new rules”.

Great post Brunetta. I will add it does go both ways not as often but it does. A good friend of mine was visiting a friend who live in the Over the Rhine area of Cincinnati(not a good area for anyone late night) . Needless to say he had a officer pull up on him and read him the riot act because in the officers words “his kind (young scruffy white kid) only come up here to buy drugs.” The guy he was going to see came out laughing and telling the officer to stop profiling his friend. Needless to say both of my friends got padded down and searched. Complaints filled to no avail since officially my one friend was said to have rolled through a stop sign.

I will add working at the airport I have seen many people of all ethnic backgrounds get questioned and the middle eastern ones tend to be the least to throw a fit. The best was a women who complained about a family being suspicious and acting odd cause the did afternoon prayers. The pilot threw her off the plane, and before anyone says anything the captain has final say on who can get on his plane for any reason I have seen a Fight attendant ask a captain to have her ex husband removed because comments the night before. He toke the next flight.

Well anyone following the news has learned that part of the chicago bound bomb materials, included cell phones and explosives and what held one of the chemicals was a syringe. Yup, a SYRINGE. No wonder they are picking on the diabetics with possible unknown chemicals.

I would have never thought a syringe would be part of an explosive!

A syringe was also used in the failed Christmas airplane bomb. So this has been known for some time to TSA as to all the different devices that can hold fluid for a bomb.