Thursday, January 7, 2010

'Explosive' at California airport found to be honey

Oops:

LOS ANGELES, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Authorities shut down a California airport on Tuesday after a suspicious amber liquid in a passenger's bag tested positive for explosives -- only to ultimately determine that the substance was honey.

Francisco Ramirez, a 31-year-old gardener who had been visiting family in the central California city of Bakersfield, was allowed to return home to Milwaukee.

"The substances in the bottles did turn out to be honey. They tested negative for all explosives and narcotics. It is nothing but honey," FBI spokesman Steve Dupre told Reuters.

Source (h/t GRG55 in this iTulip thread). What's particularly interesting about this case, though, is the following:
When the bottles were opened, two of the screeners smelled a strong chemical odor, complained of nausea and were rushed to a local hospital, where they treated and released, Kern County Sheriff's spokesman Michael Whorf said.
The placebo effect is a powerful thing. I've also heard a story (for which I have yet to find confirmation, mind you) of people in Europe complaining about a cell tower causing headaches and such, not realizing that it wasn't yet operational. (If anyone can confirm or deny this story, please let me know in the comments!) For these reasons I also have to wonder about those reports of people getting funny sick feelings around wind turbines, especially with all the FUD surrounding this subject.

No comments: