Purell Finally Exposes TSA’s Great 3.4 Ounce Liquid Sham

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

Now that nobody wants to fly anyway, TSA has decided that large bottles of fluids and gels aren’t all that dangerous after all:

The Transportation Security Administration will allow travelers to bring larger bottles of hand sanitizer on board with them when they fly, the agency announced Friday — the latest in a series of policy changes tied to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Passengers will now be allowed to travel with containers of liquid hand sanitizer up to 12 ounces.

But wait. If terrorists can make a bomb out of fluids and gels, they can just as readily make it from fluids and gels packed into a bottle marked “Purell.” So if it’s OK to carry 12 ounces of Purell on board a plane, why not 12 ounces of anything else? Does this make sense? Our resident chemist, Cheryl Rofer, explains:

Oh.

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate