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• Special Delivery - A mass spectrometer is delivered to the international space station...


• Molecular Hitchhiking on a Comet - Mass spectrometry shows molecules can survive an impact with Earth...


• Mass Spectrometry Unearths Mexico's Maize - Accelerator MS provides evidence of early agriculture in Mexico...


• Mass of the Universe -Scientists may finally have a reliable estimate of the mass of the universe...


• Airport Security - Ion mobility mass spectrometry to detect narcotics at airports...


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New Airport Security Measures

New technology at airports will enable authorities to check for drugs, explosives, and bombs with unprecedented speed and sensitivity. New scanners, so sensitive that they can tell if you even touched these object days ago, may soon be in airports. The walk-through scanners are similar to metal detectors introduced some 30 years.

Barringer Technologies and Ion Track Instruments in the United States have built a device able to detect and identify microscopic amounts of over 30 explosive or narcotic substances. When you step through the device a light puff of air ruffles your clothes. That air is sucked into a sample-preconcentrator. Ion mobility mass spectrometry is then used to determine exactly what "heavy" substances are present. The systems can detect a few parts per trillion of explosives or drugs, microscopic traces which cling to clothes and skin even when people think they're clean.

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is capable of separating ionic species at atmosphere pressure and has found many applications in detecting chemical warfare agents, explosives, and drugs. Miniaturization of the instruments has dramatically widened the use of the devices. Customs officials in some countries already use similar products to scan checked baggage. Dogs are also used for such purposes but are trained to detect a limited set of substances.

However, the makers of the human scanners concede that sometimes "false positives" can arise. A case in point is the detection of drug traces on currency carried by an unsuspecting passenger. The main drawbacks of the technology are the speed of analysis. The Sentinel, built be Barringer Technologies, presently requires seven seconds to scan each passenger. The cost of each unit will also be a barrier to its widespread use in the short term.

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