Good enough for the homeless — too dangerous to fly with

All those tubs and bins of Evil and Presumably Dangerous Liquids that get confiscated at the airport security checkpoints?

A couple weeks ago my family came to New York, where I live, from my hometown near Salt Lake City. Before leaving, my mother had purchased a small tube of lotion and put it in her purse. When she got to the security checkpoint at the airport, she realized she still had the lotion. She handed it over to the TSA worker who told her that it would be donated to a local homeless shelter.

So here we have lots of potentially explosive liquids (that’s why they’re being taken away, right?) either being dumped in the trash or given to the homeless.  If they’re really potentially dangerous, shouldn’t they be treated that way?  If not, then why take them?

One could argue that by this confiscation, anyone who would try to blow things up would know they couldn’t actually get away with it, so the liquids are probably safe.  On the other hand, how many of those folks might also consider it amusing to poison the homeless at the hands of the TSA?