False-high-rate alarm cause

There have been many quite useful discoveries in chemistry and chemical engineering over the years that have been used for detection applications. The first example is plasma chromatography, otherwise known as ion mobility spectrometry. In the 1980s this technique became the method of choice for detecting chemical warfare agents and was used by soldiers in Desert Storm with unfortunate results. Official reports tell that the rate of false alarms for these instruments was so high that soldiers became desensitized to real hazards. One infantry battalion eventually turned their alarms off. Much of the Gulf War Syndrome may well have been caused because ion mobihty spectrometry was oversold as a detection technique. 

Also important is the ability to resist false alarms. False alarms could be expected in high-sensitivity detectors no matter what technologies are used. The key is to assess false alarm rates and the materials that caused the false alarms. If the device responds with false alarms too frequently when exposed to common substances, its usefulness is greatly diminished. Equally if not more important is the ability of a device to function properly while under the influence of interferent vapors. If a relatively large number of interferent vapors affect a device s ability to detect the target chemicals, its usefulness is also limited. 

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