Abstract
Human smuggling accounts for a significant part of transnational organized crime, creating a growing threat to national and international security and putting at risk the health and lives of the people being smuggled. Early detection and interception of human beings hidden in containers or trucks are therefore of considerable importance, especially at key transportation hubs, such as at international borders and harbors. The major challenge is to provide fast inspection procedures without needing to open sealed trucks and containers. The detection of trace key volatile organic compounds, which includes aldehydes and ketones, emitted by humans can be used to rapidly determine human presence, requiring only several ml of air to be taken from inside a container. In this paper, we describe a prototype portable device for the rapid detection of hidden or entrapped people, employing a combined ion mobility spectrometer and sensor array system for obtaining a volatile signature of human presence. The detection limits of this combined analytical device are sufficiently low for use in sensing ketones and aldehydes being emitted by humans in closed containers. For easy handling by security personnel, a classification algorithm is applied that provides a simple YES or NO decision. With a training dataset of more than 1000 measurements, the algorithm achieved an area under curve of 0.9 for untrained scenarios. The field measurements show that two people need to stay in a car for between 20 and 30 minutes in order for the emitted trace volatile organic compounds to reach concentrations high enough for reliable detection with our analytical device.
Highlights
The illegal movement of people across borders affects many coun tries, most notably the United States and the European Union
Volatile substances emitted from blood, urine [7] and feces [8,9,10] can provide characteristic volatiles of human presence, but these are transient and their emission profile rapidly changes with time
Analytical devices that can be carried by emergency personal in a backpack or as hand-held devices are important for on-site application
Summary
The illegal movement of people across borders affects many coun tries, most notably the United States and the European Union. In recent years the trafficking or smuggling of people to Europe has reached epidemic proportions [1]. Owing to limited manpower and the lack of reliable, cheap and easy to operate search and rescue devices, security personnel are unable to cope with the high influx of people illegally entering a country. In this context, the rapid detection, and interception, of smuggled or trafficked people is important, in the interest of saving them from life-threatening situations, and for protecting borders. For a detection device to be applicable, a container needs to be inspected within 2–3 minutes, preferably without opening its doors or breaking any customs seals
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