Stricter Rules For Battery-Powered Devices Seen

The U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing to impose stricter regulations for small, battery-powered devices such as laptops, smart phones, and the like. The new rules are also seen to exclude alkaline and nickel metal-hydride batteries in allowed checked-in baggage. Thus, airline passengers will not find it easy to travel with laptops from now on.

From now on, small lithium cells and batteries in laptops with 60-80 watt-hours in battery power will be covered by the prohibition. In fact, the government’s proposed regulation extends to batteries with less than 100-watt hours in capacity. The removal of the previous exemption does not consider the fact that small lithium batteries are normally considered as class 9 hazardous materials, meaning, it falls in a similar category as dry ice and magnetized goods.

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