The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is trying to ban the sale of various chemicals to people who don’t have an explosives manufacturing license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).
Fair enough, you might think—unless you know enough chemistry to recognize some of the substances on the list.
Aluminium powder, for example. Am I wrong to think that a terrorist will be smart enough to work out that given the softness of aluminium, you can use a bar of aluminium metal and a grinding wheel?
Sodium benzoate requiring an explosives license might be a bit of a problem for the food industry, where it’s used as a preservative.
And best of all, they want to make salicylate compounds outright illegal. That would presumably include acetyl salicylic acid, better known as aspirin.
Of course, I’m assuming you can’t cook up explosives using a box of aspirin, a bottle of sparking wine and a ground up aluminium ruler. If I’m wrong, I’m sure I’ll be corrected.
Tagged: aluminium metal, aspirin, bizarre, chemicals, explosives, food industry, politics, terrorism, US Consumer Product Safety Commission
March 14th, 2006 at 08:08 -0700
The CPSC is trying to eliminate the manufacture of M-80’s and other similar devices by going after the chemical suppliers, instead of going after the people who actually make such devices. For anyone who would like to help fight this legal challenge, I recommend making a tax deductible donation to the Fireworks Foundation. More information can be found on their web site.
http://www.fireworksfoundation.org/