TSA: Protecting Us From Breast Milk

Another example of oppressive actions of the TSA. Here are comments from the young woman (Stacy Armato) in the video below (Note the incident happened in February 2010):

I am the brunette in black getting my items ready for screening (you will see me about 45 seconds into the video). I travel every week and bring home breast milk with me through Phoenix Sky Harbor. TSA rules allow for alternate screening (no xray) for breast milk and I almost never had a problem…until the week before this screening. I was held for 30 minutes that week while the TSA manager called to find out the rules. I was told to “pump and dump,” asked why the milk wasn’t clear, and asked where my baby was if it was really milk (uh traveling, working mom pumping doesn’t usually have the baby with her). After begging him to figure it out, they finally let me through. I called and complained to TSA and was instructed to travel with the TSA breast


milk rules printed out and present them whenever there is a problem. As my items come through security this time, I notice immediately that I was dealing with the same people from the week before. The woman tells me right away that my milk might have to go through xray, and then I tell her I printed the rules. I go to grab the rules on top of my bag and she freaks out and pushes my arm away. Another guy comes over and calls for “back up” and they put in me back in the glass cage. Standing 50 ft away are the same manager and supervisor I had dealt with the previous week. They will stall for 20 minutes before coming over to me.

Meanwhile, one of the guys comes over to me and tells me “to be quiet if I know what’s good for me.” At the end of this portion I have been locked up for just under 10 minutes. The whole ordeal takes just under 1 hour.

my brother in law did me a favor by helping me put the videos together, speed them up, and narrate. He didn’t know all the details so there were a few errors but he tried to get it up as soon as possible knowing that the issue really needed to get out there. My son was 7 months old at the time and I was not pregnant during the video. I got pregnant 6 weeks later and am due any week now with our next little one. Travel and pumping will start again for me in February 2011