Oregon Public Broadcasting

Starting this week, airline passengers will face another restriction in what items they can fly with -- this time it’s over lithium batteries in your checked baggage. Pete Springer reports.

TSA screeners at airports will now be looking for loose lithium batteries in your checked baggage -- and they’ll remove them if they find them.

The new regulation applies only to your checked baggage and only to loose or spare batteries -- batteries installed in electronic devices are still okay as are batteries still in their original packaging.

Federal officials say the new regulation deals with potential fire hazards from loose batteries in the cargo hold of airplanes, where the fire suppression systems cannot extinguish fires caused by lithium batteries.

But Mike Fergus, a spokesperson for the FAA in Seattle, says the passenger cabin has more powerful fire extinguishing agents.

Mike Fergus: “We know it can handle it easily in a passenger cabin area, that’s why we’re saying carry on fine, but as just loose in packed bags, no.”

Laptops and digital cameras often use lithium batteries and you can check with the manufacturer if you have any questions about your batteries.