Editing Taggant (section)

===Detection taggants===

These are [[Volatility (chemistry)|volatile]] [[chemical]]s which will slowly [[evaporate]] from the explosive and can be detected in the [[Earth's atmosphere|atmosphere]] by either [[detection dog]]s or specialised machines.  They are intended to enhance the detectability of the explosive by instruments or animals thus revealing the presence of a bomb containing the [[Explosive detection|explosive to be detected]]. Although various technologies exist to detect untagged explosives, detection taggants help to increase their reliability.  The inclusion of detection taggants in explosives is mandatory in some countries.  Following the bombing of [[Pan Am Flight 103|PanAm 103]] over Scotland, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was instrumental in effecting a worldwide requirement for placing a detection taggant in plastic bonded explosives.

There is a choice between four possible detection taggant chemicals which must be added to [[plastic explosive]]s under the 1991 [[International Civil Aviation Organization]]'s [[Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection]]. In the [[United States]] the marker is always 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane, usually called [[DMDNB]] or DMNB. [[Dog]]s are very sensitive to it and can detect as little as 0.5 parts per billion in the air, as can specialised [[ion mobility spectrometer]]s. Other taggants in use are [[ethylene glycol dinitrate]], known as EGDN and used to mark [[Semtex]], ortho-[[mononitrotoluene]] (o-MNT), and para-mononitrotoluene (p-MNT).