Determination of the Sensitivity and Specificity of Vapor Detection Systems for Explosives, Narcotics, and Related Compounds

During the past decade a number of portable vapor detection systems have been developed in response to military and law enforcement problems. The report concerns efforts to evaluate the capabilities of certain of the most promising of these detection systems. The following detection systems have been examined 1 Ion Mobility Spectrometer a type of plasma chromatograph, Franklin Institute Research Laboratories 2 Bioluminescent Sensor System, RPC Corporation 3 Portable Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer, Varian Associates 4 Model 27 Gelignite Detector and Model 58 Explosive Detector, Ion Track Instruments 5 Explosive Detection Dogs, trained by Southwest Research Institute. Emphasis is on sensitivity and specificity. The compounds selected for sensitivity studies were ethylene glycol dinitrate EGDN, trinitrotoluene TNT, acetic anhydride, and cocaine.