Air at MSP airport being tested after 19 fall ill inside
Pepper spray or Mace was likely to blame for closing the area around a checkpoint.

by Chao Xiong, Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St.Paul, MN)

Discarded pepper spray or Mace was the likely culprit in a chemical alarm Tuesday morning at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport that sent 19 workers to area hospitals.

Patrick Hogan, speaking for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, said, "They could find absolutely no sign of air contamination. It's important that people recognize that we don't have any indication that this was a deliberate act to disrupt airport operations."

No, not deliberate, but disruptive anyway. Boy howdy.

Incidents like this shouldn't be a huge surprise, should they?

ing commented on this recently, maybe at a blog that recently moved, leaving all comments behind. Maybe not, but in any case, I can't find her comment, so, paraphrasing ing -- from memory.

ing said something to the effect of so you're not allowed to take certain gels and liquids and what-not on planes because you might be intending to mix certain gels and liquids together and "all go BOOM!" so instead you'll take all the gels and liquids and toss them together in a big bin and later the TSA will dispose of this large glob of goods ... where? how?

Um. Right. Just saying.

[heads up courtesy of John M. Ford]

   posted by Sal Towse at  3:13 PM|| |