Flying With Bac Water and Syringes
Yes, in hand luggage: medically necessary liquids are exempt from the 100 mL (3.4 oz) limit in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and Australia, and syringes are allowed when they travel with the vial they are for. Ice packs cooling them may be partly melted, and nothing temperature-sensitive goes in the hold.
Last edited · written by PepPrep · not medical advice
Medically necessary liquids are exempt from the 100 mL limit in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and Australia. Each authority publishes its own wording, and whether your items count as medically necessary is the part that varies; check yours before you travel. Airport security treats mixing water, vials and syringes as medical supplies, and what trips people up is usually not the rule but the paperwork and the packing.
The one rule that matters
The bodies that set the liquid rule are the TSA in the US, CATSA in Canada, the UK Department for Transport, EU regulation 2015/1998 and Australia's Home Affairs, and each publishes its own wording for the medical exemption — official sources by country links them. A 30 mL bottle of bacteriostatic water is under the limit anyway; a mixed vial is a few millilitres. Ice packs and gel packs for keeping them cold are allowed too, and — this is the part people miss — they may be partly melted, because they are there for a medical reason.
Syringes are allowed in hand luggage when they travel with the thing they are for. A bag of syringes on their own invites questions; the same bag beside a labelled vial does not.
What to bring
- The original labelling. Keep water and vials in their labelled boxes or with the pharmacy label attached. The name on the label should match the name on your ticket if it is a prescription item.
- A letter or prescription copy if you have one. Not required by the rules, but it ends most conversations in ten seconds.
- A small sharps container. Used syringes cannot go in the seat pocket. A travel-size sharps container is allowed through security.
- An insulated case with a slim ice pack. Security may ask to swab it. Say what it is before they ask.
At the checkpoint
Take the case out of your bag and put it in its own tray, the way you would a laptop, and tell the officer "medical supplies, syringes and a cold pack" before the bag goes through. Declaring first is the difference between a thirty-second look and a fifteen-minute one. You may be asked to open the case; you will not be asked to open a sealed vial.
Checked bags: don't
The hold of an aircraft can drop well below freezing, and what freezing means for a given vial is for its labelling to say, not a guess. A checked bag can also be delayed for days. Everything temperature-sensitive goes in the cabin with you, without exception.
For the longer version, read Flying with syringes and cold packs; for how long a cooler actually holds temperature, see how to pack a medication cooler. For the exact wording from each country's security body, see Official sources by country.
Supplies mentioned: Travel
Sources: TSA (opens in a new tab)
Equipment only: nothing on this page is advice about what to inject, how much, or whether a product is fit to use. That comes from the product's labelling and whoever supplied it.