|
 In
"The Dog Nose Knows,"
Alan met scientists working to build an artificial dog nose
capable of sniffing out land mines. Today, the U. S. State
Department estimates there are 60 to 70 million land mines
buried around the world's war-torn regions in Eastern Europe,
Africa and Latin America. These hidden explosives kill or
maim about 25,000 people each year- that's three people every
hour of every day. Some 8,000 of these victims are children,
innocently playing, gathering firewood or farming for their
families. .
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Hidden
Dangers
Land
mines come in a surprising array of shapes and sizes, but
all of them have a common purpose- to kill or injure the unsuspecting.
Often mistaken for toys, butterfly bombs have maimed
countless curious children.
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Most
familiar is the blast mine, a buried, pressure-sensitive disc-shaped
explosive. There is the butterfly bomb- a small, hinged mine
that armies usually scatter from airplanes. Often mistaken
for toys, these bombs have maimed countless curious children.
Perhaps even more deadly is the so-called "Bounding Betty,"
which when tripped leaps three feet into the air, hurling
metal shrapnel over a six-foot radius.
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This
land mine, nicknamed "Bounding Betty," jumps up three
feet before exploding. |
Some
mines are designed to protect other mines. The anti-personnel
variety, which can be triggered by the weight of a human,
are often placed around anti-tank mines, that explode only
under the much greater weight of a vehicle. Other mines even
anticipate mine-removal activities, exploding when the local
magnetic field is disrupted.
"Right
now, a de-miner's tools consist of a metal prodding stick,
a grid that's laid down to determine the farthest point of
the cleared area, and twist ties to mark areas," says Nathaniel
Raymond of Physicians for Human Rights (PHRUSA).
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| Alan
discovers the painstaking, and often deadly, search method
used by most minesweepers. |
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This
simple tool kit belies the complexity of mine detection. Most
modern mines are plastic explosives with little to no distinctive
odor, rendering metal detectors useless and posing quite a
challenge to even the most-highly trained sniffer dogs. Currently,
the best way to clear a potential minefield is for human beings
to sweep the area one step at a time, prodding the earth just
ahead with a stick.
The
work is as dangerous as it is tedious. On average, three
de-miners are injured or one is killed, for every 1,000
square miles swept. 
Photo:
© Michael Lutch
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