Honestly, I've always scratched my head slightly at the fact that one is allowed to travel with an explosive device, so long as it also functions as a battery - yet bottled water is way out.
It's trivially easy to make a lithium fire at 45,000 feet. Stamp on/bend an IMR 18450, and you have a torch which will burn through a window. Hell, you could probably just fold your phone in half - most batteries run the full height of devices these days.
I don't know about the battery you're referencing but as far as phones go: I once cooked a Li battery from a Galaxy S5 under a thermostream at 200C (totally not by accident guys!) and it outgassed a lot, but there was no signs of fire. The battery was certainly warped and distended, and no doubt it got hot!
Further, I've seen videos of people piercing phone batteries, and it outgasses, but there was no fire. Not saying it's impossible, but at least with phones, it's less likely.
I confess I didn't try it. The whole casing had ruptured and was warped / distended. It wouldn't have even been close to fitting back in the phone. Also, passing current through it was the furthest thing from my mind. I assure you, it's not because I was embarrassed by my screwup and trying to clean up my mess as quickly as possible (plus feeling a little loopy from being gassed out).
I hope you went to a hospital to get checked out after that. Some of the gases from cooking li-ion batteries are poisonous, and can cause long-term damage.
Honestly, if you see a li-ion battery on fire, probably the best thing to do is to run. Throw it somewhere not-very-flammable if convenient, but get the heck out of there. And hold your breath.
I didn't go to the hospital. It was in a large well-ventilated room, so it was bad, but not awful (mostly could just smell something bad).
And it never actually caught fire. I did however throw it in a chamber we had fashioned for tests that might explode a battery (which this one was not supposed to be). One of my co-workers got the worst of it, and I think he ended up calling out sick the next day. I felt really bad about that.
*edit: Just wanted to add that your advice is still sound. I strongly advise against inhaling that stuff. Better yet, don't cook them, and don't deviate from your procedure just because someone came and asked you for help at precisely that moment.
You're comparing unlike things. Bottled water is not banned because someone decided it was more dangerous than lithium batteries. Bottles of liquid more than 100ml are banned because they can be used to carry on chemicals that can be combined to make something much more dangerous than a battery.
Note also that lithium-ion batteries over 100 watt-hours are banned too.
it isn't about safety. its about an illusion of effectiveness. 97% failure rate based on their own internal evaluations. If the water bottle was so dangerous, you wouldn't be allowed to throw it away in the trash can right next to the screeners.
Sure. But what is the maximum possible damage from a burning battery? Even if you managed to burn through a window, that'd be highly unlikely to down a modern airliner.
I've yet to step foot in an airport that didn't have water fountains, and won't let you take an empty reusable bottle through security. There's no need to buy bottled water.
In that case your "small toothpaste" (which is allowed) might not be that either.
And you can always dilute it in your air-hostess delivered water if you're so inclined and you just need to have your poison/whatever in liquid form...
Please, what a frigging joke. Be cooped up in a small bumpy space for hours trying to create a very touchy explosive.
... hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and sulfuric acid ...
put a beaker containing the peroxide / acetone mixture into the ice water bath (Champagne bucket), and start adding the acid, drop by drop, while stirring constantly. Watch the reaction temperature carefully. The mixture will heat, and if it gets too hot, you'll end up with a weak explosive. In fact, if it gets really hot, you'll get a premature explosion possibly sufficient to kill you, but probably no one else.
After a few hours - assuming, by some miracle, that the fumes haven't overcome you or alerted passengers or the flight crew to your activities - you'll have a quantity of TATP with which to carry out your mission. Now all you need to do is dry it for an hour or two.
I never said it was a legitimate threat (in fact, I called it idiotic), just saying that no one was ever worried about poison. You could say they should be worried about poison in the sense that poison attacks seem much easier and much more likely to be effective than explosive attacks, but then again they should be worried about nothing, since terrorism is so rare that it's not worth nearly the amount of attention it gets.
It's trivially easy to make a lithium fire at 45,000 feet. Stamp on/bend an IMR 18450, and you have a torch which will burn through a window. Hell, you could probably just fold your phone in half - most batteries run the full height of devices these days.