<<http://travel.news.yahoo.com/b/b_correa/20070209/b_correa/b_correa24035>>

Bombs in breast milk?
Fri Feb 9, 4:31 PM ET


Sometimes, even when you follow all the rules, you still get nailed.

That's the message the Transportation Security Administration sent to
business travelers earlier this week in Las Vegas when Security agents at
McCarran International Airport forced a nursing mother to throw out breast
milk she had pumped — apparently thinking it was some kind of security
threat.

Nico Melendez, the     TSA's West Coast spokesman, apologized for the
mistake and said agents mishandled the situation. The traveler, Rachel
Popplewell, had packaged the milk in three-ounce containers in compliance
with rules the agency put in place last summer after British authorities
discovered a terrorist plot to destroy U.S.-bound airplanes using liquid
explosives.

Popplewell said the agents told her they couldn't let her through with the
milk because she wasn't toting a baby with her to prove her intentions.

Is this a textbook example of a complete lack of common sense, or what? Even
the TSA must be able to figure out that the only reason women pump milk is
to use it when they can't be there in person, such as, on a business trip
(Popplewell planned to bring her milk to her 9-month-old son in Orange
County, Calif., after a one-day trip to a footwear tradeshow).

As outraged as Popplewell and other business travelers may be, there's also
other groups to which the TSA should apologize. TSA, take it from another
Mom: You do not want to tick off breastfeeding advocacy groups like La Leche
League. These women are militant and they will eat your lunch. They are hard
enough on women who can't or won't breastfeed. I can only imagine what they
are plotting for airport security.

Milk-filled water balloons? Squirt guns? Stay tuned.

Write to: Barbara Correa at [log in to unmask]





Heather "Sam" Doak
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