TSA restricts lithium batteries for meth?

It would appear that Thousands Standing Around (TSA) will start restricting the amount of lithium batteries you can take on a plane.  Only thing though is that the FAA has banned these batteries since 2004 as cargo on passenger planes.  As usual, folks online were damning the man.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy damning the man too, but for different reasons.

What’s confusing about this restriction, is it for safety or security?  Most of us heard it from TSA first, only to find out later it was passed down from the FAA.  TSA doesn’t even mention this was handed down by the FAA, leading everyone to assume it’s a security issue; and a silly one as that.

What’s even more odd is the TSA listing out your traveling allowance of lithium in grams…IN GRAMS?  Hell I’m geek and I don’t know how many “grams” of lithium are in my batteries.  I wonder how many “grams” are in a Duracell.  Somehow I don’t think is gonna cut it, people already have a hard enough time making sense of ingredients chart on the side of their favorite food, much less even care.  Plus most people aren’t even aware of what an MSDS is, much less be able to interpret it correctly for it to be even remotely useful.

The one theory I haven’t seen raised regarding this restriction, is the transportation of some quantity of lithium is being moved around for the manufacturing of methamphetamine?  There are several popular recipes for making meth, one in particular is known as the Cold/Nazi method.  Two crucial ingredients lithium and ammonia (but you have to extract the water out first) are far easier to obtain from everyday household items and in much smaller quantities as opposed to getting significant quantities of red phosphorus.  Point is lithium in “grams” is more familiar to meth cooks than your average joe.

So I guess the question is now, safety, security or manufacturing?

~ by mindrape on December 31, 2007.