Backgrounder

LIST OF ITEMS PROHIBITED IN
CARRY-ON BAGGAGE ON BOARD AIRCRAFT

Below is Transport Canada's list of items not permitted in carry-on baggage on board aircraft. For more information on carry-on baggage items, you may consult the list of dangerous goods and Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) website. Screening authorities retain the right to refuse any additional items they perceive as a possible threat to the security of air travel.

Information for passengers travelling by air to, from, or within the United States - April 14, 2005

The list includes:

• Ammunition
• Automatic weapons
• Axes and hatchets (unless part of aircraft equipment)
• Billiard cues
• Billy clubs and blackjacks
• Bows and arrows
• Box cutters
• Brass knuckles
• Carbon dioxide cartridges and other compressed gases (except those required for medical purposes or to be used for aircraft maintenance or for aerodrome maintenance or construction)
• Caustic materials (including acids)
• Chemicals or gases that are disabling (such as incapacitating sprays, pepper spray, mace and tear gas)
• Corkscrews with attached knives
• Dangerous goods within the meaning of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, 1992, and the regulations under it, unless specific approval has been granted by a person authorized by the Minister to carry out an inspection under section 8.7 of the Aeronautics Act (such as wet cell batteries, dry ice, large quantities of matches and radioactive material, except those required for medical purposes or that are part of aircraft equipment)
• Darts
• Devices for shocking (such as stun guns and cattle prods, except defibrillators that are required for medical purposes or that are part of aircraft equipment)
• Explosives (such as blasting caps, detonating cord, dynamite, black and smokeless powder, gun powder, hand grenades, slurries and all products labeled as being explosive) and military explosives (such as C-4, DM12 and sheet explosives)
• Fire extinguishers (except those that are part of aircraft equipment or aerodrome safety equipment)
• Gas torches
• Golf clubs
• Guns (such as revolvers, rifles, shot guns, BB guns, pellet guns, compressed air guns, starter pistols, flare pistols and spear guns)
• Gun lighters
• Hockey sticks
• Syringes and hypodermic needles (except for personal medical use, and with the needle’s guard in place, and when accompanied by labelled medication)
• Ice axes and ice picks
• Ice skates
• Insecticides (except those to be used by crew members for disinfection purposes)
• Knives or knife-like objects of any length (such as hunting knives, scuba knives, swords, sabres, meat cleavers, straight razors and religious knives)
• Lacrosse sticks
• Liquids marked as flammable (such as gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid and turpentine)
• Liquids that are unidentifiable in unmarked containers
• Martial arts devices (such as throwing stars, kubasaunt, kubatons and numchucks)
• Oxygen tanks (except those required for medical purposes or that are part of aircraft equipment)
• Paint
• Paint thinner
• Parts of guns
• Penetrating objects (such as scissors with pointed tips) 
• Pyrotechnics (such as fireworks, road flares, flare pistol cartridges and starter pistol cartridges)
• Razor blades (not in cartridges)
• Replica weapons
• Restraining devices (except those used by peace officers or crew members or by escort officers escorting prisoners)
• Scuba tanks
• Ski poles
• Sling shots and catapults
• Sporting bats (such as baseball bats and cricket bats)
• Tools (such as hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, drills, saws, crow bars and heavy tools, except those to be used for aircraft maintenance or for aerodrome maintenance or construction)
• Toy weapons including toy transformer robots that form into toy guns

August 2005