The Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre devoted his most recent column to the ADE651 bomb detecting device which is much in use in Iraq – even though scientific analysis suggests it produces no better than chance (i.e. you might just as well guess whether someone is carrying a bomb). This device is supposed to work thus:
“A British company called ATSC is selling a device which can detect guns, ammunition, bombs, drugs, contraband ivory – and truffles. The ADE651 uses “electrostatic magnetic ion attraction” and can detect these things from a kilometre away, through walls, under the ground, under water or even from an aeroplane three miles overhead.
ATSC’s device is handheld. You simply take a piece of plastic-coated cardboard for your chosen target, which has been through “the proprietary process of electrostatic matching of the ionic charge and structure of the substance”, pop it into a holder connected to a wand and start detecting.”
Although Goldacre does not mention this, there is an implication that a police force (or other organization) that bought large numbers of these machines even though they do not work has done so for possibly corrupt reasons. These devices are much in use in the Iraqi police force.
Meanwhile, in wholly unrelated news, the Bangkok Post recently carried a story on the GT 2000 bomb detection device much in use in the South of Thailand, which works in this way:
“According to the website of Electronic K9 Singapore Private Limited (http://www.e-k9.net/gt200faq.php),the Asia distributor of GT200, the device ”works on the principle of dia/para magnetism. All substances carry a magnetic charge that, when stimulated by an impulse of electricity, (static) creates an attraction between the substance being detected and the GT200 unit itself. This is called electro-magnetic attraction (EMA).
”What the GT200 is doing is creating an attraction between itself and the substance it wants to detect. Through the substance sensor ard and the movement of an operator, an attracting field is created in the card reader that, in turn, causes the receivers antenna of the GT200 to lock onto a signal, indicating the direction in which the substance can be located,” says the website.”
In both Iraq and Southern Thailand, misreadings given by the devices are blamed on individuals and lack of proper training.
