In article ,
Nick Wagg wrote:

"martin" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 03 Mar 2004 13:39:20 +0000, Victoria Clare
wrote:
(Keith Dancey) wrote in news:c24kno
:

Beware - Sodium Chlorate is a fire hazard.

I have never dared use it.

I have seen it used as a firelighter. It burns quite quickly, but I
wouldn't say it was as scary as all that. It stays put, unlike, say,
petrol, and burns out very quickly.

If you have an old shed that has been creosoted, I'd say that's more of a
fire hazard.

If you add a common household substance you can blow away quite large
buildings.

Nowadays you can only buy sodium chlorate containing a retardant.
Quite safe, even when mixed with C12 H22 O11.

This was not done on safety grounds, but because our Lords and Masters
want a monopoly on the ability to blow people up. Just as most of our
gun laws have little to do with safety or the reduction of crime. It
never was a fire hazard in a domestic context, except when used
completely insanely - unlike hair sprays, petrol and so on, which are
serious hazards but are much less regulated.

If I had not stopped doing chemistry c. 1963 at O-level, I am sure that
I could separate the sodium chlorate from the retardant using only
common household chemicals. The result is that gardeners now have to
pay 4 times as much for a substance that is probably far more harmful
to the environment, and terrorists can continue to buy weapons from
the lowest bidder (is the UK number 2 or number 3 in arms sales?)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.