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Airport Security Liquid Diagnostic

Rather than ban liquids, test them at security.
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I work at the airport, and having to go through security every day you start to notice things. As you probably know liquids in amounts over 3fl oz have been banned. This means that if somebody has a bottle of shampoo they have to throw it away, and if it's a water bottle they have to empty it into a bucket at security. They should spend some of those tax dollars on equipping airports with machines which would detect dangerous chemicals in liquids. Instead of handing over a beverage a passenger could just pour a capful of the drink into the top of this machine, and if no chemical was detected they could pass. I don't know a lot about chemical detection/mass spectrometry but a machine like that should be simple enough (?) to make. Warnings would go off for petroleum products, nitro glycerin, acids, & other known chemical agents. The 'spent' drink samples would empty into a resovior once tested.
DIYMatt, May 19 2009

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       let's see...   

       Cost of various chromatographers (say) $12k per install   

       Cost of annoying people with silly(ish) rules ... free   

       Cost of binary explosives which get mixed after being separately poured into the refuse bucket... priceless.
FlyingToaster, May 19 2009
  

       Clearly you didn't grow up watching MacGyver. Used correctly, any seemingly harmless liquids, such as shampoo, can be mixed with other seemingly harmless liquids to make something dangerous. Even if the person is only carrying shampoo, and no other liquids, maybe someone else he's meeting up with already got through with something else it can be mixed with.
21 Quest, May 19 2009
  

       My 1 litre bottle of water was noticed at an airport last week - the security guy just asked me to drink some to prove it was really water, and then he let me take it onto the plane.
hippo, May 20 2009
  

       Why take the bottle of nitroglyzerine onto the plane? If you managed to bring one to the security checkpoint you are all set for mass murder. Proof: The checkpoint-scene in Matrix.
loonquawl, May 20 2009
  

       Matt, are you labouring under the delusion that the 'security' checks are there because someone actually believes they might prevent a terrorist attack of some kind?
Twizz, May 20 2009
  
      
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