A total of 134 pipe bombs have been discovered in the North this year so far. Although the majority either failed to detonate or were made safe by security forces, almost 50 have exploded.
This compares to 57 pipe bombs found during the whole of last year, of which 21 exploded.
This year, north Belfast has experienced the highest concentration of attacks, with 30 of the total of 44 recorded for the city. Other trouble spots include Coleraine, Co Derry, as well as Ballymena, Ballymoney and Larne in Co Antrim.
While republican dissidents have been blamed for shooting incidents and mortar attacks in recent months, pipe bombs have been the weapon of choice for loyalist paramilitaries this year.
Six people are awaiting trial on offences involving pipe bombs, according to Mr Sam Kinkaid , RUC Assistant Chief Constable.
Pipe bombing is the work of the Ulster Defence Association, according to Mr Kinkaid. The organisation's political wing, the Ulster Democratic Party, declined to take part in the recent talks on the peace process in England. The party chairman, Mr John White, has consistently maintained the UDA ceasefire remains intact, an opinion that has been repeatedly contested by other parties.
An SDLP delegation recently told the Government that three of the UDA's six "command areas" had broken the ceasefire. The Red Hand Defenders is understood to have been used as a cover name for the UDA.
The pipe bombs range from crudely constructed devices to more advanced models. However, Mr Kinkaid said the lethal potential of any of the devices, no matter how basic, should not be underestimated. "Any of these devices can maim. They go off with a powerful bang and they will kill people," he said.
Portadown woman Ms Elizabeth O'Neill, a Protestant married to a Catholic, was killed when she lifted a pipe bomb thrown through the window of her home in June 1999.
Mr John Dallat, mayor of Coleraine, where there have been 19 attacks this year so far, said attacks on people in mixed marriages and partnerships were a frequent occurrence.
The majority of pipe-bomb victims are Catholics. However, Protestants have been targeted in feuds and in cases of witness intimidation, as well as incidents of mistaken identity.
Eighty-five of the pipe bombs discovered this year did not explode. There have also been a series of hoaxes. Nevertheless, these incidents had a distressing impact on people who have been targeted, according to Mr Danny O'Connor MLA, of the SDLP in Larne. Mr O'Connor's home was targeted by pipe bombers earlier this year.
He said schoolteachers told him that once-carefree children were wetting themselves in the classroom. Their mothers were often on tranquilisers and their grandparents were afraid to open their doors to callers.
Mr O'Connor said an attack rarely involved only one household. If the device exploded shrapnel would damage neighbours' cars and property, he said. Even if it did not explode, neighbours still had to be woken and evacuated in the middle of the night.
Pipe-bomb victims who live in council housing have been able to get assistance from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to make their homes more secure.
In other cases, Mr O'Connor said, there was not much a householder could do except leave a couple of buckets of water at the top of the stairs before going to bed - just in case.
He said Protestant families had suffered as a result of increased sectarian tension in the town.
"There are times when people go out and retaliate to violence, and that breeds more violence and more retaliation, and it just gets worse and worse.
"Ninety-five per cent of people in this town are good. Why are we letting the tail wag the dog?" he asked.