Sciencemadness Discussion Board

People freaking out about chemicals on Amazon

Metacelsus - 21-9-2017 at 16:26

https://www.channel4.com/news/potentially-deadly-bomb-ingred...

A good rebuttal:
http://idlewords.com/2017/09/anatomy_of_a_moral_panic.htm

wg48 - 22-9-2017 at 04:39

In Britain many years ago there was uproar as a result of a report about children watching violent and inappropriate videos. Newspaper headlines and questions in parliament. Parliament sprung in to action and very quickly passed very strict censorship laws about videotape content.

However one academic was curious as to how children were obtaining such material as he had been trying to obtain that type of material for his research and had difficulty.

When he investigated he found that when children were asked if they had watched such material they tended to lie and say yes even making up details about the content.

Stock up on your magnesium ribbon now LOL

So the government passed emergency legislation based on the wishful thinking of children and public panic!!!

VSEPR_VOID - 6-10-2017 at 17:42

That first post made me angry

UkAmateur - 7-10-2017 at 07:32

Nightmare. Amazon has come in handy for bits n pieces but looks like that's another source about to run dry..

Ffs!

The thing which pisses me off most about this is that its innocent buyers like us who lose out.

I've yet to see an example of a terrorist capable of building a half decent device in the country since the IRA disbanded.

The fuckers blow more of there own up than anything else.

All the precursors for nitric acid production are easily available all over the net. And as we all know nitric acid is the key precursor to a multitude of effective high explosives.

When did anyone ever hear of a terrorist or group using any of these materials???

Its invariably AP/MEKP or some kind of incendiary device.

I don't think most terrorists even have the knowledge or patience to produce a decent quality black powder.

Nevermind anything else.

Its typical British knee jerk reaction to a complete non issue IMO.

Sulaiman - 7-10-2017 at 10:05

My local hardware shop stopped stocking sulphuric acid about 9 months ago,
eBay UK rarely has it nowadays,
and my favourite source, Hexeal via Amazon, has also dried up.
There is one seller from Spain on eBay UK ... expensive p&p
and there are a couple of 91% sulphuric acid drain cleaner listings on Amazon uk.

As a simple choice between convenience for my hobby, and general public safety,
I have to agree with the withdrawal of sulphuric acid from the domestic market,
I just wish it wasn't a necessary choice.


On the brighter side,
I anticipated this problem a few months ago,
so I now have 2x 4.5 l glass demijohns of drain cleaner 96% grade (transferred from 1l hdpe shipping bottles)
in addition to c1 litre of 'reagent grade'
hopefully, literally in my case, a lifetime supply.

______________________________________
UkAmateur ... we are lucky that terrorists are noobs,
I am amazed, and relieved, by their incompetence.
I suspect that there is a maximum IQ limit for potential 'radicalisation' recruits :P

[Edited on 7-10-2017 by Sulaiman]

NEMO-Chemistry - 11-10-2017 at 15:06

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  
My local hardware shop stopped stocking sulphuric acid about 9 months ago,
eBay UK rarely has it nowadays,
and my favourite source, Hexeal via Amazon, has also dried up.
There is one seller from Spain on eBay UK ... expensive p&p
and there are a couple of 91% sulphuric acid drain cleaner listings on Amazon uk.

As a simple choice between convenience for my hobby, and general public safety,
I have to agree with the withdrawal of sulphuric acid from the domestic market,
I just wish it wasn't a necessary choice.


On the brighter side,
I anticipated this problem a few months ago,
so I now have 2x 4.5 l glass demijohns of drain cleaner 96% grade (transferred from 1l hdpe shipping bottles)
in addition to c1 litre of 'reagent grade'
hopefully, literally in my case, a lifetime supply.

______________________________________
UkAmateur ... we are lucky that terrorists are noobs,
I am amazed, and relieved, by their incompetence.
I suspect that there is a maximum IQ limit for potential 'radicalisation' recruits :P

[Edited on 7-10-2017 by Sulaiman]


But from next year you risk prison if caught with that amount, you will be a criminal in the eyes of the law, no ifs or but's. As for the license, I asked one my science teachers to try and get one. He runs an after school science club (biology based), he was turned down and you dont get the fee back.

edit for clarity, he was applying for nitric acid license, but sulphuric acid is being put under the same scheme, look on the freedom of info (what do they know), somewhere on there is a request for the number of licenses issued so far, as far as i could tell 0.

But the £40 odd quid or whatever it is you pay, you dont get back when you apply

[Edited on 11-10-2017 by NEMO-Chemistry]

Amazon Chem Story

CLaS - 19-11-2017 at 23:45

This thread about chems on amazon prompted me to register an account because I'm not sure how I feel about the situation.

Was browsing some 200 proof denatured ethyl alcohol and saw there was a 1 star review and a 2 star review, clicked the reviews to see what was so bad.



the one star review read: " Scent is waaaaay too strong not usable for diy personal care products"

comment: "This is an industrial denatured ethyl alcohol, the denaturing agent make this unsuitable for used on or in the human body. If you want to make DIY personal care compounds you should buy food grade ethyl alcohol."



the two star review read: "OVERPRICED BOOZE - Unless you work in [the prosumer equal to big pharma] there's no need for this. Try everclear and some filtering or propyl glycol. This is so overpriced."

comment: "if this product description is correct it most likely contains some methanol and isopropanol as denaturant (if you drink you will get sick/go blind) and a small amount of benzene which was used to break the azeotrope and make it 200 proof. I haven't bought this product but this comment seems sketchy. "


i'll admit i think this is situation is hillarious but don't want people to get hurt despite the very clear warnings on the label

[Edited on 20-11-2017 by CLaS]

NedsHead - 20-11-2017 at 00:22

Quote: Originally posted by NEMO-Chemistry  

But from next year you risk prison if caught with that amount, you will be a criminal in the eyes of the law,


I would probably collect some old car batteries from a salvage yard and use them as covert storage for the sulphuric acid, I wouldn't think the police will be titrating old batteries to use as evidence against people,

although maybe, it is the UK after all

NEMO-Chemistry - 20-11-2017 at 08:22

Quote: Originally posted by NedsHead  
Quote: Originally posted by NEMO-Chemistry  

But from next year you risk prison if caught with that amount, you will be a criminal in the eyes of the law,


I would probably collect some old car batteries from a salvage yard and use them as covert storage for the sulphuric acid, I wouldn't think the police will be titrating old batteries to use as evidence against people,

although maybe, it is the UK after all


Ironically there is one chemical i dont think is covered by the rules....Oleum
While i shudder at the thought, i am seriously considering using the last of my 98% high quality acid and doing exactly that with it.

There has been a very subtle change to the rules as well. Not sure when this happened but......

When you register a LTD company, you have to choose some codes from a list, these codes relate to the type of business you conduct. From word of mouth i am lead to believe you could choose something that equated to (general trading).

Now your only allowed to choose 4 codes per business, and if you use chemicals that are restricted, your business needs a SIC code that covers this. So no longer is a general LTD company enough to cover you in buying these chems.

Anyone actually know what Blogfast was done for? I understand people not wanting to say much, but he himself had said he would and it was relevant to the UK amateur.

It might help alot to others if we knew, this isnt for general gossip, but Bloggers had a LTD that dealt with chemicals and the sale of such, for him to be prosecuted leaves some questions open.

It could actually have serious consequences for those that have a LTD solely so they can get hold of these chemicals. I dont want the agro of starting a non profit company to keep legal, if there is no point in doing so.

From what I read on the news, it was something pretty serious. Considering how nit picky he could be, it worries me that he missed something in the rules, after all if he missed something then most of us will miss it.