Originally Posted by Final 3 Greens
I might be asking how the chemicals were discovered in DXB and not at the port of exit in the UK?
These days, I spend hours queueing at airports in the interests of "security" and then find out that someone appears to have got through with potentially lethal chemicals.
Makes one wonder.
Note that the determination of whether chemicals may be legally shipped by air is based on a variety of attributes (for example physical properties such as volatility / flash point, flammability; chemical properties such as corrosivity and toxicity, together with container size).
These are the attributes that might pose a hazard to the aircraft's structure/function or passenger safety, should a container break or spill during transit.
As chemists have been known to put it, "pretty much anything is lethal if the dose is high enough".
http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/dangerous_goods