Clearing the air about traveling with batteries

Suzanne Choney • E-mail

You may feel like you need some lithium after trying to read the government restrictions that took effect Jan. 1 involving air travel and lithium batteries.

Take this excerpt, for example from a recent version of a U.S. Department of Transportation Web site:

“The following quantity limits apply to both your spare and installed batteries. The limits are expressed in terms of ‘equivalent lithium content.’ 8 grams of equivalent lithium content is approximately 100 watt-hours. 25 grams is approximately 300 watt-hours.”

Furthermore, “You can also bring up to two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams, in addition to any batteries that fall below the 8-gram threshold.”

The new rule was prompted by a growing number of incidents involving smoldering or short-circuiting lithium batteries stowed both in the overhead cabin and cargo hold areas of planes.

But after studying the wording of the rule, you may feel your head — not batteries — starting to explode.

Joe Delcambre understands the reaction. He’s a spokesman for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, which issued the ruling.

“We’re attempting to bring it down to more understandable content,” Delcambre said. “We’re working with the battery industry right now to come up with something catchy.”

No limit on most batteries
Except for one category, there’s no limit on the number of batteries you can bring with you when you fly.

It’s where and how those batteries get stowed and stored that is different now.

The only limit is on spares of larger-sized lithium ion batteries — those with a 100- to 300-watt hour capacity, Delcambre said,  those “that you can’t easily fit in your pocket.”

They are most commonly used by camera crews in professional audio and visual equipment, and by some road warriors who use the kind of extended-life batteries that have almost the same footprint as the laptops they’re meant to power.

Spares of such batteries can no longer be placed in checked luggage. But batteries are allowed in checked luggage IF they are installed in the equipment they’re meant to serve.

If the larger-sized lithium ion spares are placed in carry-on bags, passengers are limited to two batteries per person.

“We’ve been getting a lot of feedback about the new rule from camera crews traveling to out-of-the-way places, where they need to carry those batteries with them,” said Delcambre.

“What they need to do now is to think ahead about their travel plans, and to maybe ship ahead the larger batteries that they can’t take with them.

“Or, if they have multiple batteries they need to travel with, and they have other people in their crew traveling with them, they can disperse batteries two per person, and still meet the restrictive limit we’ve placed on those batteries.”

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