Lighters Added to Prohibited Items List

Here's another incentive to quit if you're a smoker. Lighters are now the most recent addition to the TSA's in flight prohibited items list. Reacting to incidents similar to the Richard Reid case (Reid was caught trying to light explosives in his shoes while aboard an American Airlines flight from England to the U.S.) have added standard lighters to the already banned "torch" style lighters.

TSA put ALL lighters on the Prohibited Items List to reduce a security vulnerability and ease the operational challenge of distinguishing between types of lighters.
From TSA Leadership page

So if you still want to light up while you wait for you flight, what do you do?

Passengers are allowed to bring up to four books of matches beyond the checkpoint.
From TSA Leadership page

This new addition to the prohibited items list will require passengers to place lighters in checked bags. This won't hinder me personally as I don't smoke nor carry a lighter. I would expect this new regulation to spark debates about making airports smoke free along with the vast majority of airliners.

It seems to me that the elimination of lighters (which can be more than just an ignition source) combined with screening items for exposives would be rather efective. However I still can't deny that four books of matches can be a significant ignition source on thier own should explosives slip past the screeners. This argument puts the TSA and airports on a thin line. The next step would be to ban all ignition sources and then effectively ban smoking in airports and on flights. This turns up some heafty secutiry/freedom balance debates. It will be interesting to see how this will eventually pan out.

Click here to read TSA Article
Click here to read the Press Release on this subject from the TSA.