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MadHatter
International Hazard
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Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Maine
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Airport Chemical Screening
A few days ago I was going through airport security when
a TSA officer swiped a wet strip against the palms of my
hands. When I asked why I was told to detect chemicals
that could be used to make explosives. I had been
working with KClO4 the day before but nothing came up.
Probably because of the holidays because this wasn't
done last time(6 months ago).
Just a note of caution.
From opening of NCIS New Orleans - It goes a BOOM ! BOOM ! BOOM ! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !
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CharlieA
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You must have washed your hands really well!
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Lion850
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I'm not sure what these scanners test for, I often travel overseas for work and was randomly selected for testing by taking swabs of my hands and
inserting then into a machine more than once when, in the weeks prior to leaving I worked in my lab most days, but never did anything show up in the
tests (at least not as far as I know).
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RJ2
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You'll need a different test for an organic nitrate, an inorganic nitrate, a nitronium aromatic, an organic peroxide, an inorganic peroxide, a
chlorine based oxyanion, a different but similar one, an organophosphate, an elemental halogen,an organomercury compound, a short chain alkane, a
metal oxide mixed with an elemental metal, a natural alkaloid, a synthetic alkaloid, etc.
The test probably does detect a narrow range of threatening compounds, but you might not have handled any that make that short list. none of the measures are completely reliable. Some may simply be a show to discourage people from trying to bring contraband onboard.
They might get just as good of results putting a smokalarm labeled 'lie dectector' against the passengers butts And asking if they are planning any
crimes related to the flight. "We can tell if you are lying and up to something, so don't even think about it"
[Edited on 24-12-2019 by RJ2]
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sodium_stearate
Hazard to Others
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airport security
It's a pure dog-and-pony show.
Total B.S. as far as I see it.
Anyone with any sort of inclination to do evil
and harm is free to do so.
It would not be very difficult to defeat what's in place now.
"Opportunity is missed by most people
because it is dressed in overalls and it
looks like work" T.A. Edison
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TheMrbunGee
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Also, They do not check if you make explosives at home, but rather if you have them on you. You can wash off hands anything in one go, but if they
handle explosives in their bag/clothes, it is way harder to keep them off hands.
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Fery
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I travel by airplane a lot in EU and the extra departure scanning at airports seems to be a random process, about 1 of 5-10 passes of metal detector
frame it beeps although I do not have anything metallic, then security swipes my palms and waist. I asked a lot of times at various airports and I
always got uncertain answers like scanning for illegal/dangerous things, so I do not know whether drugs or explosives (so I assume security knows that
the detector frame tells no metal present but necessity of random check for chemicals). Few times I even saw a dog sniffing for drugs among checked
baggage while waiting for it after landing and read even about dogs sniffing for banknotes (some EU airports check for undeclared cash above 10000 EUR
limit to prevent money laundering).
I have never had any problems and I always passed these extra checks flawlessly.
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Tsjerk
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These machines are small mass spectrometers, they catch anything that is a volatile organic. I can imagine they catch things like TNT, TATP, PETN,
stuff like that. I don't think they are set to catch drugs, or at least not with a high sensitivity, they would be ringing all day.
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DavidJR
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Actually, not quite: they are ion mobility spectrometers. But yes, they can detect traces of most organic explosives as well as drugs. Which compounds
constitute an alarm and at what level is probably set by the operator.
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MadHatter
International Hazard
Posts: 1338
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Maine
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Return trip followup
My sister and I got back from visiting relatives
for the Christmas holidays and she found
this in her checked in luggage. Read their
policy about breaking locks on your luggage
Nice of them wasn't it ? 
I guess 50+ year old grandmothers transporting
Christmas gifts for the grandchildren are a MAJOR
security threat ! MOTHERFUCKERS !
From opening of NCIS New Orleans - It goes a BOOM ! BOOM ! BOOM ! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !
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DavidJR
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Yeah, I thought everyone knew that bags are sometimes opened for inspection?
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p4rtridg3
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Location: Eastern United States
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Haha! I was wondering the same thing as I had been recrystallizing KNO3 the night before a flight a few months ago. Fortunately they decided not to
test me.
I think most of the bomb scanners look for nitrates, a few fancy ones have been introduced recently to try and detect non-nitrogenous explosives. As
for how well they work, I don't know. Traditionally explosives without taggants are held to be very difficult to detect, so those machines might just
be looking for taggants that wouldn't be in amateur energetics anyway. All speculation, though.
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BromicAcid
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I used to work for a hazardous waste disposal company around 2008. I lived in Wisconsin but we had a contract with a university system out of Texas
so we were traveling a lot. We took a gear bag with us containing, among other things - a respirator, chemical labeling stickers, books on
reactivity/disposal, blank paperwork, uniforms, wrenches. I don't think a trip went by without a TSA flyer in my bag on at least one leg of the trip.
Out of all the times we traveled though we only had one issue where someone had their bag swabbed and it came back positive for nitrates. Took about
a half-hour for it to get sorted out but no big issue.
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mysteriusbhoice
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I wonder if shit does come up can you weasle your way out of it by saying that you extensively bleach your body due to germophobia and that because I
was wearing a platinum ring and stainless steel ring and copper bracelet the platinum got charged and made NaClO4.
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Ubya
International Hazard
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Quote: Originally posted by mysteriusbhoice  | | I wonder if shit does come up can you weasle your way out of it by saying that you extensively bleach your body due to germophobia and that because I
was wearing a platinum ring and stainless steel ring and copper bracelet the platinum got charged and made NaClO4. |
play dumb, in italy we have a say, "don't climb on mirrors", aka don't start making absurd stories, it will just make you look more guilty
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feel free to correct my grammar, or any mistakes i make
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Steam
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I believe the devices the TSA uses are very rudimentary time of flight mass spectrometers. I have had a couple friends report getting flagged by them
for possible explosive residue after applying glycerin-based moisturizers to their hands a short while before being swabbed. Then again, I might be
wrong. It would be fun to have the opportunity to play with one of those devices one day (outside of working for an agency like the TSA of course D:
).
**EDIT**
I didn't see the post about them being ion mobility detectors- that is very interesting. It would still be fun to play with one!
[Edited on 29-6-2020 by Steam]
DISCLAIMER: The information in this post is provided for general informational purposes only and may not reflect the current law in your jurisdiction.
No information contained in this post should be construed as legal advice from the individual author, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal
counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information included in, or accessible
through, this post without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer
licensed in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.
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Refinery
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You can legally get in contact with alarm-setting compounds on daily basis. For example, my friends who are gun enthusiastics, have triggered those
alarms more than once, but it was mostly handed business as usual. Like my other friend said, working in the airport security, no matter if detectors
go off, you still get on your flight if nothing is actually found, because detectors have tendency to go off, sometimes for something trivial. Same
thing happens with eas security gates in stores for various items, although they don't have legal right to detain or inspect you, like border control
does.
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arkoma
Redneck Overlord
Posts: 1761
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I travel by air A LOT. I get swabbed every time as I have prosthetic leg. I departed DFW last wednesday, and had handled strontium nitrate that
morning. No alarms.
"We believe the knowledge and cultural heritage of mankind should be accessible to all people around the world, regardless of their wealth, social
status, nationality, citizenship, etc" z-lib
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Tsjerk
International Hazard
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Registered: 20-4-2005
Location: Netherlands
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I think these ion mobility spectrometers (as DavidJR pointed out) are quite bad at detecting nitrates.
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chemrox
International Hazard
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Gone are the days when I checked in my bags and map cases with a loaded .45 in the bag... sigh... too fucking many people on this planet
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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Morgan
International Hazard
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I was wondering about a baking powder substitute that didn't contain the aluminum compound and came across ammonium carbonate. Would something like
that baking ingredient set off detectors after making some bread.
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macckone
Dispenser of practical lab wisdom
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I haven't flown in a while but the swab test will detect nitrates.
My wife set off the alarm with the stroller during the winter as a lot of deicing agents have nitrates in them.
The airport in denver switched the deicing agent used because one of them was setting off all of the explosive detectors when they were deicing the
roads around the terminals.
The 'pet friendly' ones are more likely to contain nitrates.
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Deathunter88
National Hazard
Posts: 518
Registered: 20-2-2015
Location: Beijing, China
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You guys need to chill the heck out and stop feeling like the entire world/govenment is against you (at least in the US). I recently got into
reloading ammunition and the double base smokeless gunpowder you use in kg+ quantities contain roughly 30% nitroglycerine and 70% nitrocellulose. The
primers contain lead styphnate among other primary explosives and the dust can get everywhere over time. You can order binary target kits online with
ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder for rifles and potassium perchlorate and aluminum powder for handguns. All this really opened my eyes and told me
that regualar non-chemists contact things that can be orders more hazardous than 99% of us amateurs and honestly realize that you really don't need to
feel so scared of doing experiments with these materials. As long as you are not actually bringing explosives with you, there really is nothing to
worry about.
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MadHatter
International Hazard
Posts: 1338
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Maine
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Mood: Enjoying retirement
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Most recent airport experience
I was gone almost 4 weeks - death in the
family. I live in Maine and most of my family
is in Maryland. Before the the outgoing flight
to BWI I was checked with the chemical strips.
Before the returning flight to Maine I was
patted down by a TSA officer. They really
don't trust us people in wheelchairs. Still no
problem either time. Life goes on.
From opening of NCIS New Orleans - It goes a BOOM ! BOOM ! BOOM ! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !
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paulll
Hazard to Others
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Registered: 1-5-2018
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Mood: It's fine. Really.
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Word to the wise, if you're going to jokingly tell the missus about this thread while making such observations as, "I mean, we all handle
nitrates," maybe don't do it in airport security. Mine didn't appreciate the humour at all.
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