Airport Security Checks

[HelenM1967]

Does anyone know why a customs officer at an Italian airport would have wiped a small piece of paper on the inside of my bag (which had already been cleared through xray security)? He was doing it to all the bags which had come through the xray machine.

[Hymie]

The cloth is analysed for a suite of chemicals that may be used in explosives (or possibly drugs). Often, to save on the number of samples analysed, the cloth is wiped over a number of bags � if the result comes back negative, all bags are OK, otherwise further investigation is required.

In reality these tests are complete b*ll*cks, but give the impression to would-be bombers/drug smugglers, that they will be detected.

[jno]

these security checks are highly efficient and invariably successful

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/ 7419969.stm