TSA Confiscates Pregnant Woman's Insulin!

1

I KNEW this was going to happen. I just knew it. I cannot begin to tell all of you how angry and disgusted I am at having to report this, but frankly, I am not suprised. Once the TSA started harrassing pumpers who would try to go through the line, I knew it was only a matter of time before TSA agents began harrassing vial and syringe users as well. Watch out, pen users. You’re next. Follow this link to watch the local news video. Text is below:

A pregnant woman in Denver said she had traveled the world with her insulin without any problems, but that all changed when Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) screeners at Denver International Airport confiscated her medication Thursday. “Well, you’re a risk,” she said the agent told her. “This is a risk… I can’t tell you why, again. But this is at risk for explosives.”

“I got a bottle of nail polish,” the mother-to-be told KMGH. “I got hair spray bottles. I got needles that are syringes. But yet I can’t take through my actual insulin?”

She explained that the medication was correctly labeled and she provided the TSA with a doctor’s note. Luckily, the agents missed half of a vial buried at the bottom of her lunch box.

The TSA website lists insulin as one of the many permitted products for traveling diabetics.

“We are sensitive to the concerns of passengers who were not satisfied with their screening experience and we invite those individuals to provide feedback to TSA through a variety of channels,” the TSA told KMGH in a statement. “We work to balance those concerns with the very real threat that our adversaries will attempt to use explosives to carry out attacks on planes.”

2

I was held up by a TSA screener last week at LAX because of my Frio insulin pack. It had passed through security in Vancouver on my way down to LA ten days earlier in a visual inspection, but going back, the screener called me aside, emptied out the insulin and questioned me about the pack. “What’s this?” he said, squeezing the insulating walls of the pack. I told him it was to keep my insulin cold. He said it would have to be put through the x-ray machine. He hauled out my bottles of insulin and sent the pack through, then sent me on my way.

Both at Vancouver and LAX I requested a visual inspection of my insulin, as the manufacturer states that it’s best to not submit it to x-rays. This option is clearly offered on the TSA website, yet none of the screeners I encountered had any idea what I was talking about.

I’m sure it’s very difficult for screeners to be aware of every eventuality and they’re doing a tough job, but I do find passing through security unnerving as a type 1 diabetic, given that screeners don’t seem to have the information that’s on the TSA website.

3

I flew from Philly to Oakland and back last month. I am a vial & syringe user and didn’t have any problem at all in either city. In fact, my husband takes the D supplies thru with his stuff b/c I set off the scan with my prosthetic hip. No one even said anything about the supplies at all and they went thru the x-ray. I get a pat down b/c of the hip. I have flown international and cross country 3 times since Dec.2010 without any problem. It might just be the airport.