The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7414 p209
19 August 2006

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Airport security measures affect carriage of liquid medicines

Travellers may be concerned about whether they will be allowed to carry their medicines on board flights after hand luggage rescrictions were tightened in response to the recent threat to UK security.

As The Journal went to press, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre had downgraded the threat level from “critical” to “severe”. Each passenger is permitted to carry one item of cabin baggage through the airport security point and no liquids of any type are allowed except:

· Essential medicines in liquid form sufficient and essential for the flight

· Baby milk and liquid baby food (the contents of which must be tasted by the accompanying passenger)

Airport operator BAA is suggesting that the authenticity of liquid medicines be verified by a pharmacist at the airport. A spokeswoman for Boots said that pharmacists at airport Boots stores have not been involved since the downgrading of the security alert.

Some UK airports are asking people to carry their prescription or an authorisation from their doctor to authenticate liquid medicines.

Up-to-date information on hand-baggage restrictions is available on airport websites.