DHS brings explosives detection pilot program to Seattle-Takoma
Previously at SFO, program is helping DHS work out the logistical kinks involved with air cargo explosives detection; sussing out human smuggling a priority as well, with officials looking to carbon dioxide emissions as a critical clue
If Frasier Crane still lived in Seattle, he might be able to use the news of a new cargo screening pilot program at that city’s airport to reassure his aviophobic radio callers. After a launch at San Francisco International Airport, DHS is taking its Air Cargo Explosives Detection Pilot Program to Seattle-Takoma International Airport as part of a $30 million effort to discern the technological and operational issues involved with explosives and human smuggling detection. DHS officials will examine the logistics of air cargo — how fast it moves through the airport and how quickly effective screening might be accomplished. The effort, of course, is an attempt to improve the percentage of screened cargo, which now hovers around 10 percent, depending on whom you ask.
One other interesting test: DHS officials are interested in technologies that detect the presence of carbon dioxide in cargo. Carbon dioxide, science-minded readers will recall, is the end result of respiration. High levels of carbon dioxide would tell screeners that a human being — or another large animal — was attempting a free ride (excepting the shipping cost, of course).
-read more in David Hubler’s FCW report http://www.fcw.com/article96775-11-09-06-Web
