Product Code Database
A taggant is any chemical or physical marker added to materials to allow various forms of testing or detection. Physical taggants can take many different forms but are typically microscopic in size, included at low levels, and simple to detect. They can be utilized to differentiate authentic product from counterfeits, provide identifying information for traceability purposes (e.g. lot number, company name), determine mixing homogeneity and cross-contamination, and to detect dilution of proprietary products. Taggants are known to be widely used in the animal feed industry, plastics, inks, sheet and flexible explosives, and pharmaceuticals.
An RF taggant is a radio frequency microchip used in automated identification and data capture (see RFID). In such cases, electronic devices use radio waves to track and identify items, such as pharmaceutical products, by assigning individual to the containers holding each product. This technology may prevent the diversion or counterfeiting of drugs by allowing wholesalers and pharmacists to determine the identity and dosage of individual products.
A software taggant is a cryptographic signature added to software that enables positive origin identification and integrity of programs. Software taggants use standard PKI techniques (see public key infrastructure) and were introduced by the Industry Connections Security Group of IEEE in an attempt to control proliferation of malware obfuscation via executable compression.
There is a choice between four possible detection taggant chemicals which must be added to plastic explosives 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. are very sensitive to it and can detect as little as 0.5 parts per billion in the air, as can specialised ion mobility spectrometers. 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).
A contention claimed for opposing mandated taggants is that most terrorist attacks use homemade explosives (HME) which would allegedly not be tagged. Examples given included, for instance, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Oklahoma City and the . Contamination of the site is also cited as a problem, since different taggants might be present at a crime scene from, for example, explosives used to obtain the building materials.
Switzerland passed a law in 1980 requiring taggants in explosives manufactured there, and that the code must be changed every six months. So far it is the only country which requires identification taggants. Imported explosives must be tagged only if competing products are also manufactured in Switzerland.
In the United States, the NRA opposed the mandated use of taggants in firearm propellants after tests revealed a dangerous increase in burn rates. It was claimed that a chemical incompatibility with the propellent powders would cause such an increase in pressures that many firearms would burst after using a taggant-laced powder that had been stored for as little as several months. However, these tests were performed on gunpowder with a taggant concentration of 500,000 parts per million (in other words, one-half), which is 2,000 times greater than the official recommended taggant concentration of 250 parts per million. Tagging Explosives, ABC Science, Karl S. Kruszelnicki, August 6, 1999. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Institute of Explosive Manufacturers – Taggant history and background
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