A local company has joined the fight against terrorism: The Duluth arm of the manufacturing firm PartnerTech, a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of the Swedish firm PartnerTech AB, joined homeland security and defense corporation Isonics to begin producing high-tech devices that can detect up to 60 toxic chemicals and explosives.

"These products will be an important tool for first responders and law enforcement personnel in protecting people from what experts tell us will be the next generation of terrorist attacks," Isonics CEO James Alexander said at an August press conference at PartnerTech, where officials from both companies displayed several new machines. The Lawrenceville-based Slingshot Product Development Group was also on hand as it participated in the design of one of the devices.

• The portable Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) Detection Unit, which looks like a VCR with a small LCD screen on its face, is designed for use in mailroom package screening, entry point security screening for public buildings, and mass transit vehicles.
• Small desk and vending machine-sized versions of the portable unit also protect worker breathing zones from biohazards.
• The handheld IMS Detection Unit, resembling a personal video camera, activates an alarm signal when traces of chemicals are detected in the air or on items it examines - identifying the malicious compounds in question.

According to Isonics vice president Dennis Koehler, the devices could have saved lives in events such as the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995 - when emergency responders could have immediately known the identity of the substance and how to treat the victims.

Had the devices been installed on the Madrid subway in 2004, the bombing in Spain may have been averted completely, Isonics spokespeople add.

"The events of 9/11 are forever branded into our minds," Koehler says. "Those events have changed all our lives one way or another, and the change is permanent. Events in large cities and around the globe again remind us that we must be vigilant against similar attacks here in the United States. We have to protect against the threats you can foresee and those you can't."

How the IMS units work
The devices intake a small air sample from a suspect item such as a package or a backpack. The molecules from the air sample are then exposed to an ionization source causing them to become electrically charged. These charged particles are then analyzed and identified. If the unit detects a threat, it identifies the substance and displays concentration levels on the unit's LCD screen and triggers an alarm signal for the operator. If programmed, it can also transmit data to warn authorities.