Chemical Suppliers Under Attack by Feds

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 2006-04-28 05:25.

United Nuclear sells scientific equipment and supplies. Their motto is, "We specialize in small orders." The Consumer Product Safety Commission has initiated criminal legal action against them and other chemical suppliers. They need money for the legal fight, which you can donate at the linked page. [clairefiles]

From their home page:

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IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!! - The Government is actively attempting to eliminate all chemical sales to the public. This action has been initiated by the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission). Ourselves (and other chemical suppliers) are now faced with legal action against us. If we lose this court battle, it will be illegal to even own a chemistry set.

Most of the text of the legal action page:

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The United States CPSC has initiated criminal legal action against us and other chemical suppliers.
In short, the CPSC would like to ban the public from all access to chemicals. This would mean an end to hobbies such as model rocketry, pyrotechnics and of course chemistry. One by one, our freedoms are slowly being taken away from us - this action must be stopped now.
Specifically, the CPSC is focusing on certain chemicals and metals at this time. The current CPSC injunction would require:

"Not sell, give away or otherwise distribute any of the following Metals for which the particle size is finer than 100 mesh (or particles less than 150 microns in size) to any recipient who does not possess a valid
manufacturing license for explosives issued by the ATF:"

Aluminum and Aluminum alloys
Magnalium metal
Magnesium metal
Magnesium/Aluminum alloys
Titanium and Titanium alloys
Zinc metal
Zirconium metal

"Not sell, give away or otherwise distribute any of the following chemicals to any recipient who does not possess a valid manufacturing license for explosives issued by the ATF:"

Antimony and antimony compounds
Benzoate compounds
Nitrate compounds
Permanganate compounds
Chlorate compounds
Perchlorate compounds
Salicylate compounds
Sulfur

or any other chemical or metal listed at 16 C.F.R. ยง 1507.2 to any recipient who does not possess a valid manufacturing license for explosives issued by the ATF"

"Not sell, give away or otherwise distribute any fuse in an amount greater than 25 feet per year per recipient who does not possess a valid manufacturing license for explosives issued by the ATF."

In addition, the injunction requires extensive record keeping (photocopies of drivers licenses and, if applicable, ATF licenses for all recipients, as well as detailed invoices maintained for at least seven years) and will require suppliers to provide those records to CPSC at any time on demand.

This forbids or very severely limits sale of all common oxidizers and many common pyrotechnic fuels to anyone who does not hold a manufacturing license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF). To require everyone who wants to work with common chemicals to hold a BATF "Explosives Manufacturing License"... even though they are not manufacturing explosives, is completely insane.

You may be one of the large numbers of unlicensed hobbyist out there who are legally manufacturing fireworks of various types, rocket engines... or just experimenting with chemistry who will be severely affected if the CPSC is successful.

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