Sciencemadness Discussion Board

New chemical restrictions in Canada?

ManyInterests - 6-7-2021 at 07:32

https://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2021/2021-06-05/html/re...

According to this now acetone, hexamine, calcium ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder will be added to the explosive act as explosive precursors? While I don't think that hexamine fuel tablets or CAN cold packs will be going away, they might end up being harder and/or more annoying to get.

Any Canadian home/professional chemists got any comment on this? Cold packs are the only easy source of nitrates I know of, and acetone is great for cleaning all sorts of stuff and removing glue off surfaces. That is what I find really dumb. It's a basic solvent, and they are so terrified of some terrorist trying to make TATP that they want to monitor sales of the stuff? Most terrorists who try to make the stuff blow themselves up or lose their fingers. There is a reason why it's called the mother of Satan by the Palestinians. It isn't because of it's power. It's because of how dangerous it is to the user it is.

[Edited on 6-7-2021 by ManyInterests]

[Edited on 6-7-2021 by ManyInterests]

Fyndium - 6-7-2021 at 11:17

Acetone was to be restricted when bought in bigger than something like 5L quantities. So buying 1L cans will not change. Your link states though that suspicious transactions should be reported, which is in line with the already existing precursors list that is like 60 years old.

I classify acetone as one of the most important solvents because of it's versatility for all purposes, and restricting it would basically change the basis of many things.

paulll - 6-7-2021 at 14:47

I was looking for acetone in Walmart two nights ago and the shelves were empty so this post set my mind racing a little.
Picked up a,"US gallon," of it at Home Hardware this afternoon, though.
What the article says does seem to be in line with its status as a (former?) class B precursor, which reminds me I need to do up some ether to round out the collection.

S.C. Wack - 6-7-2021 at 15:12

Quote: Originally posted by Fyndium  
Acetone was to be restricted when bought in bigger than something like 5L quantities.


Which would apply to those currently selling gallons?

IMHO all the restrictions everywhere are about chemical control in general, and whatever excuse is made is just the excuse that is made. Weird how every chemical that's banned for OTC purposes could be used for drugs in some way too. Note how Canada banned Br cpds. for hot tubs; maybe it's not a controlled substance, but it's now not OTC and no doubt Canadian children are much safer now from the menace of bromide disinfection and another tragic public health loophole in the regulations.

Energetics-testin - 25-7-2022 at 10:27

Eumh another source of nitrate..its a lil bit expensive but its easy to get..Road flares,they are like 50%+ strontium nitrate..its easy to separate the SRN03 from all of the other stuff in it,but like i said..its pretty expensive for what it is..

Calcium ammonium nitrate is still available
5L+ container of acetone are still sold in pretty much all hardware stores
Hexamine is still "common"
And aluminium powder can be purchased online without trouble


[Edited on 25-7-2022 by Energetics-testin]

OneEyedPyro - 26-7-2022 at 01:01

Quote: Originally posted by Energetics-testin  
Eumh another source of nitrate..its a lil bit expensive but its easy to get..Road flares,they are like 50%+ strontium nitrate..its easy to separate the SRN03 from all of the other stuff in it,but like i said..its pretty expensive for what it is..

Calcium ammonium nitrate is still available
5L+ container of acetone are still sold in pretty much all hardware stores
Hexamine is still "common"
And aluminium powder can be purchased online without trouble


[Edited on 25-7-2022 by Energetics-testin]


Totally off topic, but such restrictions open up a huge potential for illicit smuggling of reagents. Not so different than alcohol prohibition of the past or the drug prohibition of today.

I can quite literally obtain a 50 pound bag of fertilizer grade AN for a similar price if not less than a 5 pack of road flares here in the US. It must suck living in communist Canada.

ManyInterests - 13-12-2022 at 20:00

Well I will be running into some problems. While not a legal thing. Westlab apparently stopped selling to residential addresses. My account was deleted. I did contact them about it and tried to make another one, but I realize it will likely be pointless since they cannot ship to my apartment anyway.

Which was a pity since I was going to make a pretty big order. At least nothing I wanted to get is too hard to get in other places, and the things that ARE hard to get I already bought, so I will need to make sure my supply lasts. Things like ammonium thiocyanate especially.

unionised - 14-12-2022 at 04:26

Quote: Originally posted by Energetics-testin  
Eumh another source of nitrate..its a lil bit expensive but its easy to get..Road flares,they are like 50%+ strontium nitrate.

[Edited on 25-7-2022 by Energetics-testin]

What's a road flare?

blogfast25 - 14-12-2022 at 08:05

The UK has recently banned any H2SO4 above 15 w% to non-'permit holders'.

Working up car battery acid will become all the rage among some backyard scientists.

Herr Haber - 14-12-2022 at 09:52

Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
Quote: Originally posted by Energetics-testin  
Eumh another source of nitrate..its a lil bit expensive but its easy to get..Road flares,they are like 50%+ strontium nitrate.

[Edited on 25-7-2022 by Energetics-testin]

What's a road flare?


Long time burning pyro comp with Sr nitrate / carbonate, a pinch of KClO4, shellac, sometimes sawdust or a cooling salt to slow down burn time. Burn times vary between 5 to 20 minutes usually.
Used by EMT & Law enforcement when accidents happened in fog, bad weather conditions etc.
They are now mostly a thing of the past since you can do better and cheaper with LED's.

clearly_not_atara - 14-12-2022 at 10:18

Quote: Originally posted by S.C. Wack  
Quote: Originally posted by Fyndium  
Acetone was to be restricted when bought in bigger than something like 5L quantities.


Which would apply to those currently selling gallons?

IMHO all the restrictions everywhere are about chemical control in general, and whatever excuse is made is just the excuse that is made. Weird how every chemical that's banned for OTC purposes could be used for drugs in some way too. Note how Canada banned Br cpds. for hot tubs; maybe it's not a controlled substance, but it's now not OTC and no doubt Canadian children are much safer now from the menace of bromide disinfection and another tragic public health loophole in the regulations.


Apparently sodium bromide is only banned in certain systems (particularly in combination with Oxone):

troublefreepool.com/threads/sodium-bromide-is-not-banned-in-canada.248924/

Furthermore, I have not found any evidence that BCDMH is banned in Canada, although the purification of bromine from this compound is annoying (to say the least!).

[Edited on 14-12-2022 by clearly_not_atara]

woelen - 14-12-2022 at 10:24

Sodium bromide can be obtained easily, but its application in swimming pools is not permitted in many countries. For instance, in NL we can buy sodium bromide, or potassium bromide without problem, but not in swimming pool products. What someone does at home in his personal tub is hard to check, but using bromine in a public swimming pool is not allowed. I understood that this is due to possible health effects of long time or repeated exposure to bromine/bromide and hence the banning of bromine-based swimming pool products. All products over here are chlorine-based, or based on oxygen-compounds (e.g. oxone).

Fantasma4500 - 17-2-2023 at 08:53

maybe bromide isnt toxic enough? dipping in a swimming pool can starve your testosterone for as long as 2 weeks for as much as 20%
undoubtedly its in decline, im becoming the older generation, im supposed to think the younger ones are crazy- im really just disappointed with how boring they are, the average old man is more masculine than the average teen .. "male"

blogfast25 - 17-2-2023 at 12:06

Quote: Originally posted by Fantasma4500  
dipping in a swimming pool can starve your testosterone for as long as 2 weeks for as much as 20%
undoubtedly its in decline, [...]


You have evidence for this? A reference maybe?