Travel and Vaping vape residue possibly setting off TSA?

[MrSparkle]

This might get long by way of explanation - I'll try to condense as best I can.

Also, I do not want this post to be alarmist - I'm just investigating due to the circumstances, and posting here for the relevance.

I'm a new vaper, just over a month, and lovin it. I have an eGrip and using VG e-fluid. I don't cloud chase.

An old friend of mine was in town here in Chicago from LA for the holidays. He brought his laptop, a USB audio interface, and a microphone and assorted cords so we could make some laptop rock with another buddy who plays guitar (I play drums and was using an Akai pad controller for drums).

We had 3 sessions about a week apart, and were in a finished, living room-type basement with no funny business happening chemical-wise (this will make sense in a bit). While I went into the bathroom to vape the first session, after a while the guys were cool about it after I had explained vaping thoroughly, and vaped a cloud (as much as I could do being new and with an eGrip with the stock atty) to let them smell it, which they found unoffensive (Dekang USA tobacco mix).

Keep in mind during this that my eGrip does not leak, I vaped sparingly, and I never blew vapor directly at the equipment. But, I was the one controlling both my LA friend's laptop and mine during the sessions, and setting up the microphone and USB interface, so I handled all that plus the cords.

My friend flew back to LA on Thursday, but was pulled out of security check by TSA at O'Hare for having traces of chemical explosives on the microphone. He's flown with it before and never had a problem. Not a big deal, they let him go pretty quick, but this got me wondering...

I Googled "vegetable glycerin" and started reading the Wiki page for glycerol, which a wiki search for VG would redirect to, and read this:

"Glycerol is used to produce nitroglycerin, which is an essential ingredient of various explosives such as dynamite, gelignite, and propellants like cordite."


1) I can't imagine the TSA sniffer mistaking the tiniest trace of vape residue for nitroglycerine, but can see a possible connection based on the info above.

2) The connection seems greater considering my buddy has flown with the mike before and this never happened until after being around me.

3) Why didn't the laptop or the USB interface (basically a mini mixing board, a box a little bigger than a paperback book with knobs) or the cords set them off? Why only the mike? I can assure all that I've known this buddy since high school, and has little interest in chemicals, let alone explosives, and the basement was his father's house, a retired high school teacher.

4) In light of the TSA having no problem with e-cig and liquid travel, all the vapers flying out there, and the possibility of hardcore vapers / cloud chasers having the potential for residue on stuff, why doesn't VG in and of itself set off alarms every day?


I realize this might have been just an isolated false positive situation, but putting it out there just in case - vaping does not need this kind of publicity. In light of this, I've already thoroughly explained the above to my buddy, who was nowhere near being accusatory (it might have been worse though if the TSA hassled him more or prevented his flight).


Thanks for any / all thoughts on this.

Dan

 

[twgbonehead]

I had a similar experience. This was a couple of years ago.

I had a hand-made mod, powered by a car-racing battery pack (that I had a USB adapter connected to). Although clearly labeled as a battery pack, it looked a lot like 2 sticks of dynamite wrapped together with wires coming out! Due to the crude nature of the setup I know there was a bit of e-liquid that had dripped on the battery pack.

Going through TSA, they were concerned about the pack, and called over a supervisor, who said "As long as it passed the scanners, it's fine". They told him it didn't pass the scanners (the "wipe a pad on the thing and put it in a machine" test).

So, he and I had a friendly chat; I explained to him about the power pack. I assume he was looking for signs of tenseness (and that while we were chatting they were going through my bag with a fine-toothed comb). But after about 25 minutes, he said "You're fine, have a nice flight" and let me go.


That's the only time something like this happened (although nowadays I don't usually have e-liquid on my batts, and carry much more conventional-looking vaping equipment).

 

[MrSparkle]

Cool, thanks tw! I was going to Google more on it today, but this has to be so isolated - I'm not going to bother. Mainly because again, with vaping on the rise, we should have seen or heard more stories about this - so this thread will be here for folks to find and chime in if it happens again (and folks look hard enough for it).

 

[stevegmu]

I had my gear- tanks, ProVari, bottles... swabbed a few weeks ago coming back from Prague. Passed no issues. It is the 4th or 5th time my gear has been swabbed- at various airports- Amsterdam, Prague, Cleveland. Never had a problem...

 

[Papa_Lazarou]

TSA tests also test for explosive precursors (so you don't have the supplies to make an IED on the plane). The glycerine, if it falls into that category, might have set the test off.

I was having renovations done on my house and my laptop kept failing the chem test while it was going on (I travelled 3 times while the renos were going on). The culprit? Dry wall dust - another potential explosives precursor. This was explained to me by the agent at the airport.

ETA: that said, I've been through 30+ TSA checks with vape gear with no issue.

 

[edyle]

why the microphone and not the other stuff:
because different people might he handling the microphone, so various chemicals from various people might have accumulated on the microphone.

might have nothing to do with the vg.

 

[HMav]

I think the only time this would come up is when TSA does a wipe test due to any other suspicion about something. Glycerin, being one of the 3 ingredients needed to make nitroglycerin (it's easy to make, the hard part is having it not spontaneously explode during the reaction), could easily be a reason to stop someone for a little chat.

E-juice isn't the only thing that contains glycerin, lots of lotions do as well, so if this were the only cause for a search and chat, a lot more people would be stopped. I think your friend met some of the other super secret criteria or was picked at random that day. I wouldn't think that it indicates anything for the rest of us to worry about.

Every time I have been pulled aside by the TSA they have been very professional and it was nothing more than a little chat and perhaps a more thorough search by a supervisor followed by a "sorry for the inconvenience, have a nice trip", even once when I had a multi-tool in my carry on (which was a no-no, I didn't even think about the knife on it).

 

[MrSparkle]

Thanks folks! LA buddy reports that he was never worried about it, in fact the TSA was rather apologetic. He also reports that they have in fact fixated on the mic before, not for something chemical but to open it up due to its shape (it's a inexpensive MXL condenser, nothing obnoxious, but I could see TSA thinking what could be hidden inside it).

So this really is isolated, based on the above. But something to consider if a vaper out there stores their stuff in something cylindrical.