AN INTRUSION DETECTOR FOR A LORRY

For various political, commercial and humanitarian reasons there is a desire to detect intrusion of stowaways into lorries and other freight vehicles. Many traditional intrusion detectors operate on the bases of detecting an increase in carbon dioxide within a space as indicator of presence of a human. A problem arises when the freight vehicle is carrying perishable goods such as fruits and vegetables which give off COas they perish which makes it difficult to reliably attribute the cause of an elevation in COconcentration. An embodiment of the invention overcomes this problem by detecting a sudden decrease in COconcentration within the freight vehicle from a concentration that is much elevated from a background atmospheric concentration of around 400 ppm. This sudden decrease can be attributed to opening of a door of a trailer allowing the escape of COthat has built up as the freight perishes.