The article is from 2006, but is still valid. The Consumer Products Safety Commission in its crusade to make everything idiot proof has neutered the once ubiquitous chemistry set. (Lawsuit happiness probably contributed.) The war on drugs has made it illegal to purchase common laboratory glassware without a background check.
Last week my SO had to repack her cosmetics case into checked luggage because she had more tha 3 oz. of lotions and such. To top it off some TSA idiot spilled perfume into her suitcase. She is now sick because she has multiple chemical sensitivity and her clothes are probably unusable.
> The war on drugs has made it illegal to purchase common laboratory glassware without a background check
If only that were all. Try getting Aldrich Inc. (or any other chemical vendor) to ship anything at all to a non-corporate address. And may the gods help you if your neighbors catch a glimpse of glassware through your basement window or smell a solvent: be prepared to stare down a SWAT team's rifle barrel at 3 in the morning.
I am an amateur photographer who enjoys spending a lot of time in the darkroom. As the rise of digital cameras has caused "darkroom technician" to turn from a profession to a hobby, some materials that once had pre-made formulations from Kodak or Ilford now have to be cooked up at home.
It has been increasingly difficult to get Sodium Hydroxide (lye), Potassium Permanganate and Potassium Dichromate. I actually had to register with the DEA to get Potassium Dichromate, even though I can't figure out what it's used for in the drug trade.
Although I'm usually a more or less rational person, part of me really is worried that some day I'm going to buy sodium hydroxide and a pack of pseudoephedrine on the same day and get raided at 3 AM.
> Although I'm usually a more or less rational person
For what it's worth, we are nowhere near that sort of real-time reporting for things like pseudoephedrine. At the pharmacy near me they are still having you sign a giant 3 ring binder when you buy pseudoephedrine.
Just wait for the next "Meth Prevention Act." Seriously. Do you really think that real-time reporting won't be imposed eventually?
The powers-that-be already require prepaid debit cards (so you cannot make anonymous purchases on-line) and cell phones (no more anonymous calling) to be registered in this way.
Government is pushing ePrescribing pretty hard. It will happen some time after ePrescribing is universal. Some politician will wake up one day and say to themself, "Why we already have the ability to track this real time. We just need to force all e-prescribing systems to register whenever someone buys whatever-needs-monitoring."
If they already have the system in place to track drugs prescribed by providers then it will be easier to require the pharmacys to tie your purchase to you on your OTC purchases. The pharmacys will already have the software and hardware in place. All it will take is a law to require all of the software vendors to comply.
My guess is that pharmacies will simply be barred from accepting cash. The credit card processors are already set up for bureaucrats to monitor at their leisure.
i think if someone decided to lobby the issue such legislation would have a decent chance of making it into law, but you can't legislate engineering. real-time monitoring of all retail sales in the united states is quite an undertaking. and as smart as it may be to be concerned about government intervention into our lives, i think there are better outlets for that energy.
[edit, thought better about some "no need to put words into my mouth" type stuff]
Potassium Dichromate is a fairly nasty chemical due to the face is has Chromium in a high oxidation state. They have pretty much written it out of Chemistry experiments in undergraduate chem courses.
I'm aware of its oxidation potential. Although I am not from a chemistry background, I do my best to use and store potentially dangerous chemicals as prescribed by their MSDS sheets.
I use it for a printing-out-process called Gum Bichromate printing, and there isn't really a safer substitute sensitiser for this process that I'm aware of.
The thing I'm not sure about is why I had to register with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) to buy the stuff.
Last week my SO had to repack her cosmetics case into checked luggage because she had more tha 3 oz. of lotions and such. To top it off some TSA idiot spilled perfume into her suitcase. She is now sick because she has multiple chemical sensitivity and her clothes are probably unusable.