Minutus

Subject: Carrying remedies through airports
Greetings!
Has anyone had experience with remedies surviving airport x-rays and other magnetic detection devices? Several clients are concerned about air travel and maintaining the potency of their remedies with the heightened airline security. How would you recommend transporting homeopathic remedies to protect them now?
Joan Scott Lowe, CCH, RSHom (NA)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

For many years I have been hand-carrying my remedy case and submitting
it to hand checking at the security check. I always walk ahead and with
a smile and a good attitude talk to the security person who looks like
the 'head honcho', and tell them that I am a Homeopath and I am carrying
remedies that cannot go through Xrays and therefore I need for them to
be hand checked. It is always successful. I hand the case to them, put
the rest of my carryon on the belt and walk through the metal detector,
and then join the guard in checking my remedies by hand.

One word of caution: Baltimore airport in the Washington DC area: For
whatever reason, that airport is to be avoided. Although they agreed to
hand check my case, the instructions there are ridiculous: They check
everything also for explosives with a non-radiation machine. So, they
took out EACH AND EVERY vial and bottle, swiped this piece of flannel
over it and then put the flannel into the machine to find traces of
explosives. If you are carrying 4-5 remedies, that's no problem. I had
over 200 vials on that trip. I missed my flight. When I complained,
they brought two more guards who threatened to arrest me if I don't
comply with the rules. This was in April of 2000..... Since then we
hear that Baltimore is the absolute most difficult airport to go through
with the new regulations....

Another suggestion: If you wear something like a coat or a large
jacket, it is possible to put the remedies in ones pockets and walk
through the metal detector with no impunity.

Another piece of information: The airlines on Xray about 10% of the
luggage that is checked in. Scary as that may sound, it allows for
putting our remedies into our suitcases that are checked in. They Xray
only those baggages that they pick by the passenger list or if they
suspect something.

In my experience, LIQUID dilutions survive the best, even if exposed to
some Xray, as we can succuss them vigorously upon arrival to a safe
haven.... Pills will not do.

And what do you all think about the Post Office's latest plans to
irradiate all the mail with either Electron/Ion accelerators or with
Cobalt radiation? That sounds like any Homeopath's nightmare, and I am
wondering if the Homeopathic Pharmacies and manufacturers are going to
do something about it???
Sara

Dear Joan,

I agree with Sara's proactive approach to carrying remedies through
airports. I just returned from a trip to Hawaii and had to get my kit of
about 40 remedies past X-ray stations three times. I prepared ahead of
time by printing up an official-looking list of remedies on my office
stationary titled, "Homeopathic Emergency Kit" and placing it in the
container with the bottles. At each X-ray station I asked to speak to a
supervisor before I was questioned. One person asked to see my medical
license. The others let me pass without much fanfare.

For patients, I suggest that you write and sign a note on a prescription
pad or stationary identifying the remedies they are carrying as
medication and explaining why they can't be X-rayed. Hopefully, this
will suffice.

Good luck,
Arlene