The government’s decision to allow passengers to bring pocketknives aboard commercial airplanes upset union leaders and relatives of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday that small knives, short souvenir baseball bats, pool sticks, golf clubs, ski poles and other sports gear will be allowed as carry-ons by passengers beginning April 25. TSA said the policy changes are part of an overall assessment of risk and will allow security personnel to “better focus their efforts on finding higher threat items such as explosives.”

Items still banned either in luggage or on a passenger’s person are razor blades and box cutters, full-size baseball, softball and cricket bats, fixed blade knives, blades wider than a half-inch, locking blades, large kitchen knives and cleavers.

The decision to relax the restrictions brought a protest from Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents 10,000 flight attendants at Southwest Airlines. The local called the new policy “dangerous” and “shortsighted.”

Sally Reganhard, whose firefighter son was kileld at the World Trade Center, said, “I’m flabbergasted. I’m really disgusted by this latest news.”

Ann Davis, spokeswoman for the TSA’s northeastern region that includes Ohio, said passengers surrender 750,000 prohibited items each year. About half of the items are small knives that will not be prohibited now. Typically, the small knives have been donated to the state, which then auctions them off.

“This will cut down on the resources required to manage those items, and has the benefit of freeing up our office to locate higher threat items,” Davis said.

A loosening of restrictions isn’t expected to have much impact on the operations at area airports, officials said.

Over the years since strict carry-on restrictions went into place, passengers seem to have educated themselves on what they shouldn’t try to carry aboard a plane.

For example, at Dayton International Airport, only about 15 to 20 sharp objects, usually small knives, are surrendered in a week, said spokeswoman Linda Hughes. But that’s among 3,000 to 4,000 passengers who pass through the airport daily.

Most of the items that are held are over-sized liquids and jells. Passengers are given the option of placing small knives in checked-in baggage or leaving them in their automobiles before they are surrendered, Hughes added.

Brian Gregg, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport spokesman, said the changes won’t likely create any ripples.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.