Imagine paying US$60, 000 to be smuggled from China to the US in a container, spending two weeks holed-up with 31 others, only to have your New World hopes dashed as you clamber out of your temporary mobile home – by a Los Angles crane operator. Tough luck!
But just imagine if that container had been transporting a ‘dirty bomb’ or worse. Would a crane driver’s vigilance be enough to prevent the unthinkable?
And what about the chance meeting in 2001 between Italian Police and a suspected al-Qaeda operative? Just one month after the atrocity in New York, a man was discovered in a container onboard a ship en route to Canada. The well-dressed Egyptian had a laptop computer, mobile phones, cameras, various identification and documentation claiming a career as an aircraft mechanic. His plans, whatever they may have been, were foiled, but again purely by chance.
These and similar events exemplify the importance of continuing to pursue a number of science and technology applications aimed at protecting “critical infrastructures” like sea ports, harbours, borders and airport terminals. And as Tom Ridge, the head of US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stressed earlier this year in an address to students and professors at the London School of Economics:
“Information sharing must become more swift and transparent, whilst public communication must be improved and emergency response protocols honed. The latest science and most advanced technologies must also continue to be sought out and utilized, ” he said.
The US is encouraging the wider adoption of its Container Security Initiative (CSI) and other measures because terrorists are deemed to be targeting not just the US but globalisation and the global economy per se. As such the US is leading developments to increase security by checking what goes into and through all the ports of the world.
THE 24-HOUR RULE Included in these initiatives is a rule requiring cargo and containership operators to supply details of all US-bound cargoes 24 hours before the goods are loaded at a foreign port. This information is fed through the National Targeting Centre computers at Virginia which scans for vague cargo descriptions, suspicious transport routes, wrong addresses and first-time shipments to the US.
Washington is thought to be pushing for all nations to adopt this 24-hour rule plus the entire raft of measures fast-tracked through Washington immediately after 9/11, especially CSI, which the DHS says has now been expanded to include 21 countries and is operational in 34 ports in Europe, Asia and Africa. The port of Dubai recently became the first Middle Eastern port to participate, although it is expected that ten more of the world’s leading ports will sign up to CSI through the course of this year.
Under the CSI programme a team of DHS officers is deployed to work with their host nation counterparts to target all containers that pose a potential threat by using intelligence and automated information to identify and target containers that pose a risk; pre-screening those containers that pose such risk at the port of departure before they arrive at US ports; detection technologies to quickly pre-screen containers; and smarter, tamper-evident containers. The latter concept is becoming a frequent necessity with the increasing use of containers as temporary mobile homes for illegal aliens, asylum seekers and potential terrorists.
STOWAWAY DETECTION Supply chain security is critical not only to the global economy but also to a lesser extent to the profit and loss account of the freight forwarder.
Intercontinental truckers are frequently targeted, but if anyone is found in the back of truck or container, drivers and shippers can be fined in excess of £2500 per stowaway and the cargo load destroyed as it becomes classed as contaminated, especially foodstuffs.
The stowaway could be a thing of the past, however, if a new UK company can find a technology transfer partner to invest in its stateof-the-art stowaway detector.
In what is thought to be the world’s first commercial vehicle alarm that uses CO 2sensor technology, the Intellitect system consists of a carbon dioxide and microwave movement sensor to detect human body temperature.
The tamper-proof, battery-powered unit, which is being marketed towards freight forwarders and shippers is able to detect stowaways by drawing air out from the interior of the monitored space and passing it over a CO 2sensor on a continuous basis. The sensor and associated electronics are wired to look for a change in CO 2levels having first monitored the ambient temperature.
In addition to CO 2, the unit has a microwave movement detector, similar in concept to Passive Infrared sensors, but it can see through objects such as the cargo load. It is also tuned to objects at 36infinityC (the ambient temperature of the human body), thus ignoring load shifts.
However, the speed of detection does vary dependant on container size and occupancy. But Steve Gill, joint md of Premier Warranties, the company behind the Intellitect system, says that a stowaway sitting in an empty 13.6 metre trailer, as far away from the sensor as possible, would be detected in just 30mins. For a container however, “another device would be required but this would not be difficult to fit, ” says Gill.
When the unit detects an intruder a 120dB alarm sounds and an Exnon strobe light flashes. Other facilities such as a radio link, or GPS/GRPS tracking are available, and patented electronics have been incorporated into the unit to minimise spurious alarms. Multi-point anti-tamper circuits are also designed into the system to deter attacks on the alarm’s siren, strobe light or on its sensors.
There are currently no firm orders for the system, although according to Gill there is a lot of interest from USA Fortune 50 companies.
“We are planning to sell in kit form to original equipment manufacturers for £500 per unit. With GPS it’s an extra £150.
We’re also very interested in talking to companies that would manufacture the system under licence, ” Gill confides.
The future of global commerce depends on the ability of shipping and to a larger degree, the ports industry to improve cargo security while streamlining the flow of goods.
Tom Ridge believes that the “scourge of global terrorism requires the strength of a global response. And the means to confront the terrorist threat successfully rests in our ability to engage the world community, work together multilaterally and foster healthy dialogue and strategic cooperation among allies.
“As we have seen with the recent tsunami disaster, when tragedy strikes, its impacts are felt far and wide. The loss of so many lives is a powerful reminder – a reminder that we are indeed one people. That at the end of the day our differences do not outweigh the humanity that defines and binds us. And that the most effective course to protect our citizens and our homelands is the one we pursue together.”
