[url]http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20030103&Category=APN&ArtNo=301031129&Ref=AR[/url]

How does one "accidently" inject yourself?  And why couldn't he take a simple injection on the airline?  What's he going to do, give everyone a flu shot?   What about diabetics?  Are diabetics allowed to take their needles and such onboard?

I think insulin shots were already prohibited.  I flew to South Africa a few years ago, and the local airport made a coworker of mine check his bag that had his insulin and needles.  He snuck in a couple of needles and a vial anyway, because he couldn't make it through the entire long flight without it.  Of course when we got to SA, his bags didn't.  Fortunately for him, the company we went to work for decided to close that office just before we got there, so we flew home the next day.  Unfortunately, the office manager's secretary was found burned alive in her car after a car jacking.  They decided it was best if they left SA as soon as possible.  I guess diabetics that need insulin just aren't supposed to fly.z

Insulin and syringes are allowed in carry-on baggage in the US.

From DOT's list of Prohibitted-Permited items.

Permited

Diabetes-Related Supplies/Equipment, (once inspected to ensure prohibited items are not concealed) including: insulin and insulin loaded dispensing products; vials or box of individual vials; jet injectors; pens; infusers; and preloaded syringes; and an unlimited number of unused syringes, when accompanied by insulin; lancets; blood glucose meters; blood glucose meter test strips; insulin pumps; and insulin pump supplies.  Insulin in any form or dispenser must be properly marked with a professionally printed label identifying the medication or manufacturer’s name or pharmaceutical label.  

I may be dating myself badly, but when I was in the service in the 60’s the atropine cartridge was spring loaded.  

You were supposed to push it against your body - which triggered the mechanism, causing the needle to spring forward and then the atropine to be forced out.

Seems to me there should have been some sort of safety or protective packaging.

Epi pens still work this way.

DING DING DING!!!!

The one they currently use are still spring loaded. You push it against your skin, and it auto-injects. Then you take the empty injector, bend the needle, and stick it through the flap on your BDU so the medics know how many you've had. As far as I am aware, Atropine is controlled... i.e. not over the counter. Military or not.. I'd like to know what this guy was doing with the stuff.

That is correct, both injectors in the Nerve agent antidote are spring loaded with long needles.  Both the atropine and 2 Pam Chloride have needles long enough to not only go through BDU's but through the thick chemical weapons protective suits and into a large muscle (normally your ass).  I was told stories in basic training about these injectors in which one guy was sleeping on a military aircraft using his gasmask carrier (where the 3 pairs of injectors are carried) as a pillow and when the plane hit some turbulence, one activated going into his brainstem and kiling him.    If this myrmidon accidentally discharged an atropine injection it probably went through his hand so he probably didnt get much of a dose of it.  Never the less he will probably be wired for the next three days on that little he did have.