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Super-Sensitive Spray-On Explosive Detector
esocid writes "US scientists have designed a new spray-on explosive detector sensitive enough to detect just a billionth of a gram of (nitrogen-containing) explosive. After treatment, the explosive glows blue under UV light, making the detector perfect for use in the field. The silafluorene-fluorene copolymer can detect explosives at much lower levels than existing systems because it detects particles instead of explosive vapors, and is able to show the difference between nitrate esters (trinitroglycerin) and nitroaromatic explosives (TNT). The team is currently working on a similar system to detect peroxide-based explosives and say they hope to be able to investigate perchlorates and organic nitrates, too."
Explosive material found on every bedsheet of every hotel in America!
95% percent of our paper money contains microscopic amounts of cocaine, imagine if we use such sensitive equipment to detect it. We'd all be locked up. Mmmm...maybe that's the intention.
What?
Sprinkle peroxide on everybody's luggage.
What?
So, can it detect glycerin? I think it's found in many skin care products.
Then again, is there any information on the number of false positives of this thing?
Tie two birds together: although they have four wings, they cannot fly. (The blind man)
The article isn't terribly specific about which nitrogen compounds react to the spray, only providing a couple of examples. If I worked in my garden 5 days before a flight, am I going to get hazed by TSA because I didn't eliminate every last speck of fertilizer from my clothes?
I lost faith in the current airport explosives detectors when I found out that Bondo products set them off. It was a hilarious hour or so watching a broken system thrash about trying to figure out why their machine kept beeping when there were clearly no explosives in my bag.
Did I mention that this was after a Defcon in the Las Vegas airport?
I lost what little respect I had in the system (note: Not the people you would ever see on the floor, they have been pretty OK for the most part) at that point.
Between the War On Moisture, pointless shoe removal, and a TSA that can't ever answer any question with the word 'Why' in it, I have absolutely zero faith in the system any more.
I am a frequent flier, put in over 100K miles last year and am on track to do more than that this year. If you simply go through the airports enough, you can trivially avoid any security measure there is, it isn't even a trick.
So, spray on bomb detectors? Great. So? Send the bad guys through security 25 times and you will see several obvious ways to not get it checked. Game over.
-Charlie
I never understood what happens when an airport baggage handler gets a second job as a landscaper, and comes to work every day covered in nitrates, and spreads it on everyone's luggages? How do chemical detectors deal with all these sources of noise?
When reading this was, so people's clothing and bags will be covered with this fluorene polymer for who knows how long. And if used liberally in an airport, we'll be breathing aerosolized fluorene. It's not classified as a carcinogen, but I don't believe humans have ever been chronically exposed to it, but I guess we'll find out if the TSA starts using it in a few years.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
A spray-on explosives detector already exists. Here's a picture of it in action in a field situation where explosives may have been present.
That one has a few negative side effects, though... Maybe this new one improves on them? That'd probably be helpful in airports.
The enemies of Democracy are
So isntead of bothering with the trouble of setting off a bomb just spray a bunch of people with a little bit of chemical. If your compatriots do so at other major airports you can probably shut down the whole system for a good while.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
Security Theater is just that -- a system designed to placate the public that "something is being done" by giving the perception that it's safe to fly. But a certain number of guns, knives, and God knows what else still make it through every day.
You cannot have truly secure airport security without going Israeli-style (i.e., checkpoints a mile away from the terminal, multiple interviewers asking you about your trip and then comparing notes, open pretty much EVERY bag and asking the passengers about the contents, etc.). Yes -- I've flown internationally thru Ben Guiron Airport in Tel Aviv and checking in for the flight back to the States took about 3 hours (and this wasn't even El Al -- it was Continental). It's incompatible with the current American expectation of not being racially profiled and of getting thru security within 20 minutes.
It has a fresh pine scent!
Sig this!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1809825/Environmental-Protection-Agency-flourene
Well, OK, technically it's silaflourene, but that has a good chance of being worse.
I really think you don't want this stuff sprayed on you.
Woefully inadequet? When exactly was the last time a US plane was hijacked? When was the last one brought down? What is the signifigance of the impact of the dead from airplane crashes due to terrorist action in relation to say, traffic accidents?
It looks to me like airoort security is FAR tighter than it ever needed to be. The simple fact is, there just isn't that much of a call for keeping bombs off planes
. Its more a demand problem really. There are plenty of planes to blow up, not shortage at all, just a very low demand for blowing them up. So low that it doesn't happen still, even with the lax and weak security theater going on at the "checkpoints"
Its a non-issue. Seriously, spend more time worrying about your cholesterol and keeping your driving skills sharp, those are far bigger dangers to you.
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I don't know how many people here know this, but a UK citizen was arrested and sentenced in Dubai for 3 milligrams of cannabis. Once people can get arrested for microgram or smaller levels of anything, no one will be safe, since no one will be able to tell if they haven't been exposed at that level, and it will be very hard to verify that the vanishingly small evidence was indeed what was claimed.
Oh good! Something even MORE SENSITIVE, and thus MORE SUBJECT TO FALSE POSITIVES!
Now, Big Brother will have reason to pull you aside because they found:
1) Ammonium nitrate (from fertilizer residue on your golf clubs, shoes, clothes, and anything that ame into contact with equipemnt or fertilized ground)
2) Nitroglycerin (from hand lotions, creams, and medication)
3) Nitrocellulose (unburned powder residue from anybody who shoots or hunts)
4) Phosphorous (residue from matches)
5) Hydrocarbons (from gasoline/diesel if you filled your car up before arriving at the airport)
6) PETN (From heart medication)
7) Glycerine (from hand lotions/creams/makeup)
Considering all the false positives and not a single positive, this product is pretty much useless, except for collaring people who ARE NOT terrorists. Even more so, what about the people who don't know what the ingredients in their personal product are?
How could someone, especially your average Jane Doe who most likely does not realize that her hand cream contains nitroglycerin? How about the cranky guy who doesn't realize he has ammonium Nitrate on his clothes that rubbed off on him from his dog who rolled around on someone's freshly fertilized lawn? How about the guy taking PETN or nitroglycerine for heart problems? Does he need to be a pharmacist as well as a chemist to know that it's the same stuff used in bombs? What about the guy who filled up his car on the way to the airport and has diesel or gasoline fuel residue on his hands? What if you are an avid rifleman? Does the presense of nitrocellulose on your hands/shirt/pants make you a suspected terrorist? They truly and honestly won't be able to explain these things, because they don't know that virtually every product used in daily life can potentially have some "explosive" (when used in pure quantities) ingredient that those overzealous, jackbooted customs "agents" are itching to collar you for.
This product has a *VERY* limited market, and by limited I mean only flights originating from certain, suspect Middle Eastern Countries. Using it in the Civilized World, it serves no more purpose than to give Big Brother enough "Probable Cause" to ruin your day, if not your life.
I'd like to see the numbers of False Positives compared to TRUE POSITIVES.
This crap is no more use than as an expensive can of Cheez Whiz.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Black powder is based on potassium nitrate (and charcoal and sulfur), but so is the salt substitute I use in my low-sodium diet.
I suspect that I probably have enough potassium nitrate on everything I own to leave trace on everything that touches anything I own.
Given the extreme sensitivity of this solution, my entire world would probably glow blue.
Of course anyone who just ate fries at MacDonalds has hands just COVERED in nitrates (sodium nitrate - plain old table salt)...
I question how useful this is in the real world.
--Tomas
And let's not forget all the heart disease patients -- lots of them take nitrates. I take one nitrate drug (Imdur) daily, and occasionally take nitroglycerine; the latter would, practically by definition, set off any sensitive explosive detector.
Sold in tax free: Razor blades, Matches, Vodka in glass bottles, Propane propelled deodorant, etc...
Confiscated in security: Nail scissors, tweezers, liquid volumes exceeding 100ml
Allowed through security (personal experience ): candles, multiple liquid containers at 100ml each, litres of liquids that are inside a sealed plastic bag with a pwetty picture on it... etc..
This is even past the stage of security theater, it is damn obvious its primary purpose is to allow the airports to sell more stuff once you are past the security clearance.
Woefully inadequet? When exactly was the last time a US plane was hijacked? When was the last one brought down? What is the signifigance of the impact of the dead from airplane crashes due to terrorist action in relation to say, traffic accidents?
Ya know, ever since I put this rock that repeled tigers in my yard, there have been no tiger attacks in all of VT! And my wife laughed at me when I bought it. Sure showed her..
Agreed: You want to do it right, you need to model the operations of Israeli airport/airline security.
The impressive thing was the flight INTO IL: Transferring in the EU, over an hour before boarding, 2 cars pulled up to the plane and unloaded non-uniformed armed security who inspected, then surrounded the plane, and remained in sight of each other at all times. This was long before we saw the security crew for us appear and setup their podia to perform the aforementioned interviews. The interview was very little, but eye contact was absolutely constant after the document review. Plus an old-fashioned second xray of the carry ons. It was very smooth, thorough and no doubt expensive.
Ben Gurion, for the flight out, was as-described, minus the wait: At 5am on a Saturday, it's rather quiet.
Interesting at TLV: the security interviews (2 plus bag searches for those without special letters) were all conducted by young women. The entire crew was 90% women, and no one looked older than mid 30's. Couldn't figure out if those observations were the results of scheduling, or a choice for strategic reasons.
My take on all of this is there is absolutely no substitute for an attentive person simply interviewing. US Customs has known this for years, it cannot be outsourced, it takes time to train these folks, a minor amount of time for us, and seems to be working. All reasons why Security Theater has no reason to fear: inertia will keep us on the current path well past every threshold of ridiculosity we could ever possibly imagine.
About the only mechanical explosion I can think of would be compressed gas, and you are gonna have a hard time explaining to Security why you are toting those big compressed gas tanks onto a plane.
In a month anyone NOT detectable by this absurd theater will be assumed to be a no-good-nik because they DON'T set it off.
It's all history, man. -anon