USA Today: DOT bans e-cigarettes in checked luggage
Under a new federal rule announced Monday by the Department of Transportation, airline passengers and crewmembers will no longer be able to pack battery-powered portable electronic smoking devices such as e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-pipes, personal vaporizers and any sort of electronic nicotine delivery system, in checked luggage.
“We know from recent incidents that e-cigarettes in checked bags can catch fire during transport,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in statement announcing the new federal rule. “Fire hazards in flight are particularly dangerous. Banning e-cigarettes from checked bags is a prudent safety measure.”
The DOT cites a U.S. Fire Administration report listing more than two dozen e-cigarette-related explosions and fires that have taken place since 2009, including some that involved e-cigarettes that were in checked luggage on airplanes.
According to the DOT, on Aug. 9, 2014, at Boston’s Logan Airport, an e-cigarette that was in a passenger’s checked bag in the cargo hold of a passenger plane caused a fire that forced the evacuation of the aircraft. And on Jan. 4, 2015, at Los Angeles International Airport, a checked bag that arrived late and missed its connecting flight caught on fire when an e-cigarette inside the bag overheated.
Under the new rule, passengers may continue to put e-cigarettes in their carry-on bags (or in their pockets), but they cannot use the e-cigs or charge them during a flight.
Although the DOT has said in the past that its rule banning the smoking of tobacco products on passenger flights extends to electronic cigarettes, the DOT is now also proposing to amend the rule to name e-cigarettes in the ruling.
According to the Associated Press, the ruling banning e-cigarettes from checked luggage should go into effect within two weeks.
Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and USA TODAY Travel’s “At the Airport” columnist. She occasionally contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh’s Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2015/10/27/electronic-cigarette-checked-luggage-ban/74670944/
