California Woman To Receive $75,000 From The Agency

In January, 2010, Stacey Armato was in a security line at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport traveling home to California. When she reached the checkpoint, the nursing mother was told she could not take the breast milk she had expressed during her business trip with her on the airplane, because she would not allow the liquid to be x-rayed.

Armato had regularly taken the trip, and she had previously been allowed to board following a visual inspection of the liquid. She said she did not want the milk exposed to the x-rays. The TSA agent on duty told her it had to be x-rayed or discarded. When she asked the agent to read the rules, and he found that it expressly allows alternate screening methods for breast milk, she was told "Well, not today."

While the milk was eventually allowed through without being x-rayed, Armato had already missed her flight.

Armato filed a complaint against the agency, and the New York Daily News reports that the agency has agreed to pay $75,000 for her trouble. She says she will use some to cover her legal expenses incurred through filing the suit, and donate the rest to a charity that supports breast-feeding moms.

FMI: www.tsa.gov