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Opportunities to Improve Airport Passenger Screening with Mass Spectrometry (2004) / Chapter Skim
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1 Background and Overview
Pages 9-14

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 9...
... Baser} on historical terrorist attacks involving the hijacking and bombing of aircraft, current threat detection measures concentrate on detecting weapons or specific explosives. ~ the future, such attacks could also involve the use of toxic chemicals, chemical ant]
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From page 10...
... LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT TRACE TECHNOLOGY An ideal trace system would be capable of inexpensively detecting a specific threat substance and distinguishing it from a complex background on a time scale appropriate for terminating the threat and mitigating the impact on people, property and flight operations. Unfortunately, there is no system that is widely deployable anti able to identify all threat substances in real time.
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From page 11...
... The indirect nature of trace detection means that a positive detection does not confirm the presence of a threat amount of explosive, nor does a negative result confirm the absence of an explosive. Generic Limitations Trace threat detection techniques as deployed in airports are subject to a number of generic limitations that stem from the indirect nature of the detection: These include sampling issues and false alarms triggered by innocently acquired residues.
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From page 12...
... baggage screening, the committee believes that there are alternative technologies that would greatly increase the probability of (detection at acceptably low false alarm rates. In particular, this report focuses on the potential role for mass spectrometry to improve trace detection capabilities now deployed in airports for the growing variety of threat materials.
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From page 13...
... Background and Overview 13 that need to be addressed before such instruments could be deployed in an airport setting and suggests one possible phased strategy for such deployment.
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Key Terms

  • threat substances
  • threat materials
  • false alarms
  • mass spectrometry
  • chemical specificity

  • passenger checkpoints
  • personal items
  • passenger screening
  • false alarm
  • explosive trace

  • acceptance test
  • checked baggage
  • threat substance
  • alarm rates
  • eds machines

  • detection methods
  • indirect nature
  • threat detection
  • test plan
  • trace detectors

  • baggage screening
  • alarm threshold
  • specific explosives
  • detection limit
  • mass spectrometers

  • specific set
  • subsequent fingerprint
  • amount specified
  • interfering molecules
  • blind sampling


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