WASHINGTON (TIP): Airline passengers will be able to carry small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes beginning next month under a policy change announced Tuesday by the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The new policy conforms US security standards to international standards, and allows TSA to concentrate its energies on serious safety threats, the agency said in a statement.

The announcement, made by TSA administrator John Pistole at an airline industry gathering in New York, drew an immediate outcry from unions representing flight attendants and other airline workers, who said the items are dangerous in the hands of the wrong passengers.

Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents over 10,000 flight attendants at Southwest Airlines, called the new policy “dangerous” and “shortsighted,” saying it was designed to make “the lives of TSA staff easier, but not make flights safer”. The policy change was based on a recommendation from an internal TSA working group.