WHAT A CARRY ON! Eve Cameron shares her frustrations about the liquid limit at airport security

Small can be beautiful, but not when it comes to that tiny airport security bag, says Eve Cameron

The serum bottle only just protruded from the otherwise sealed plastic bag, but the airport security guard was having none of it. ‘It has to be completely sealed,’ she barked. I tried. I failed. I handed over my serum (half-empty and marginally less vital than everything else) and placed my bag in the tray. That 20cm by 20cm one-litre bag into which we have to put all liquids, gels and pastes pre-flight is the reason I rarely travel hand-luggage only. I admire women who do: women whose hair, make-up and skincare needs can be edited into something the size of a small sandwich bag. But for those of us with a more maximalist (normal?) approach, it’s near impossible. ‘Decant,’ some will cry. ‘Buy clear plastic pots from Primark and fill them with what you already have in your bathroom.’ That’s okay for shampoo and liquid cleansers, but active ingredients such as vitamin C and retinol will oxidise and degrade with exposure to light and air – that’s why they don’t come in clear plastic bottles. If you’re staying in a hotel, you may get lucky with free toiletries – but, if you spend a fortune on colouring your hair, do you really want to risk it with an all-in-one hair and body wash?

Of course, safety matters more than anything. The liquids-in-the-bag rule was brought in 13 years ago across the EU after UK security forces intercepted a plot to blow up an airliner using a liquid bomb. For three months, no liquids or gels were allowed in hand luggage. Then came the bag, in which nothing could be more than 100ml.

But why quite so small? I decided to ask the

Department for Transport, which sent me a link to EU legislation around aviation security that didn’t answer my question. It added, ‘We do not comment on specific measures for obvious reasons.’

I felt a bit silly then. Though it is the sort of answer that gives rise to conspiracy theories. Is it really about the lobbying power of airport retailers? After all, Heathrow’s retail revenues were up 8.6% last year. Or is the truth more prosaic? Did a (male) Brussels bureaucrat think ‘bit of shampoo, toothpaste, aftershave… yes, that’ll fit nicely’? In the end, I found the most revealing answer on the US Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration website. In a blog post from 2008, the then administrator Kip Hawley wrote, ‘We reduce risk by deciding what we believe is necessary for a completed bomb – the core of the 100ml limit…a 100ml container limits the effect of, and even the ability of, a detonation.’ There’s more, but I stopped googling as I didn’t want the security forces to think

I had an unhealthy interest in the subject.

So, it’s no more moaning and back to hold luggage for me, even if that does mean having to pay an extra

£50 on some airlines, because I am a woman who just can’t travel light. As scanning and testing technology becomes ever more sophisticated, I’m hopeful that our liquid rules may be relaxed in the future. In the meantime, I’ll see you in duty-free…

‘I’M A WOMAN WHO JUST CAN’T TRAVEL LIGHT’