Cheap Perfumes Contain Trace Amounts of Explosives {The 5th Sense in the News}
Life is dangerous in Iraq but who knew that wearing perfume could provoke security issues? Although the following article does not address the problem of the health hazards that certain perfumes and cosmetics containing trace amounts of explosives could potentially cause to their users, it does reveal that fragrances can trigger explosives detectors...
"The trouble, according to Iraqi officials and company employees, is that the wand that Iraqi soldiers use at the checkpoints to detect explosives seems to have an unerring attraction to shampoo and soapsuds. Nothing, however, sets off the detectors the way personal fragrances do.
"They stop us every time," Farhan said with a resigned shrug. "There's nothing we can do."
The problem is that some "cheaply manufactured perfumes and some cosmetics" contain trace amounts of a powerful explosive called RDX, according to an e-mail from Jim McCormick, the exports director of ATSC, the British firm that makes the wands."
