EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

This is a forum to share experiences and ideas about holography.
AndyS

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by AndyS »

Hi!

Unfortunately I have bad news for holography in Europe. Some required material might become banned or a permission might
be required to purchase or own it if new regulations of the European Union are passed that are currently prepared. I think
this might be important for some users here as there is still some time to influence legislation.

Because of campaigns of a dubious German lobbyist company that tried to sell software for a government internet filter (like the filter used by the Chinese government) in 2004-2009 several German authorities started over 3000 house searches against persons that purchased chemicals.
This lobbyist abused the introduction of a stricter explosives law in 2003 (experiments to build a sparkler became a serious felony) for his
allegations all purchasers of chemicals would commit crime and circumvent the explosives law. He probably knew that German bureaucrats always fear any
circumvention of any law or regulation and try to introduce new measures to prevent such circumvention immediately if they hear something like that.
First all 1700 customers of two dealers were prosecuted that were denounced by the above lobbyist to "sell high-explosives to anybody by internet mailorder".
Although this thesis was obviously not true (those dealers sold only oxidizers like hydrogen peroxide and other common household
and laboratory chemicals) German authorities defined all chemicals (e.g. sodium carbonate, calcium fluoride or dichromates) sold by the above two dealers to be chemicals for the manufacture of explosives and German (and EU) authorities started to check other dealers that sold similar chemicals. Apparently German politicians of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats from 3 states (especially Schleswig-Holstein but also Northrhine Westphalia and Bavaria) asked police to start this razzia because the above lobbyist started to reproach the Secretary of State (Schily) with accusation of inactivity on TV.
I can perhaps post a list of those chemicals later. On those list for example silver and as far as I remember silver compounds are also mentioned.
In fact all German and even nearly all European internet-dealers that offer any chemicals were checked. Frequently a search-warrant against all their customers was issued if a dealer made any mistake in the application of the regulations for sale of chemicals. For example the purchase of a few gram sodium hydroxide and copper sulfate was sufficient for a search warrant in such a case. Many customers were even accused of alleged felonies and some were even convicted although they didn't violate any law or regulation because even expert witness was apparently manipulated by the superior administration - probably because the fear of German politicians to hear again those allegations Germany would be a bomb-maker paradise because purchases of some chemicals are
still allowed.

German authorities, especially the environmental authorities that regulate the sale of chemicals, then asked the government in 2006 to pass stricter
laws and regulations to introduce an even stricter monitoring of all sales and to insist that the European Union should ban even the sale of
smallest amounts of any oxidizer to the general public. Even industry should be denounced if the owner of a company might order material
for a private experiment and such a company should be put out of business because this would be a circumvention of regulations.
They also asked for a total ban of all CMR-chemicals such as dichromates as they fear they might be used for manufacture of
explosives, too. The so called BLAC government board already instructed dealers to deny any sale of CMR-chemicals (except for gasoline)
in spite of still existing exceptions in the regulations.
The new German laws and treaties to denounce all suspicious customers to the LKA police authorities were introduced in a hasty legislation in
spring 2008 after the so called "Sauerland-Gruppe" was discovered that bought large amounts of hydrogen peroxide
and industry was asked to apply them in advance.

Apparently the German government then asked the European Union to introduce a ban for oxidizers as the EU announced a plan for this
in 2006. In 2009 a list of top-priority chemicals that should be banned completely was presented to some industry organizations.
acetone, hexamethylenetetramine, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, all nitrates, chlorates, perchlorates,
and permanganates and all mixtures thereof were listed to be banned even in dilute solutions of 10-15%. Other chemicals like citric acid
shall be monitored and sold only to adults. They even wanted that suppliers should treat all small and medium-sized companies (SMB)
like potential terrorists! Now they apparently plan a system of permissions because of critic that it doesn't make
sense to regulate smallest amounts of potassium nitrate stricter than dynamite while industrial black powder is still availaible to the general public
in considerable amounts.
According to a second EU task force called CBRN-task force that shall prevent any abuse of toxic materials 440 chemicals and group
of chemicals like formaldehyde, ammonia, urea, bromine, chlorine and many other important chemicals.

The EU plans to pass those regulations in 2010. We should watch those activites and perhaps contact politicians and industry organizations
like the FECC (www.fecc.org) to stop this nonsense to regulate even milligram amounts of harmless research chemicals stricter
than anything else. Any such help would be appreciated.
Colin Kaminski

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by Colin Kaminski »

Hopefully we can stop this. Already I am seeing increasing requests from EU holographers for simple chemicals. Pretty soon we will need a permit to buy sodium chloride!
Jem

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by Jem »

It's Dihydrogen Monoxide that we should be really concerned about. Dangerous stuff!
wler

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by wler »

Colin Kaminski wrote:Hopefully we can stop this. Already I am seeing increasing requests from EU holographers for simple chemicals
Well things are getting difficult - I tried to buy some things in the states during occasional trips but it is not allowed to take even a spray can on an air plane (eg this black chalkboard Krylon spray that is perfect for hologram back sides), nor can one mail it, officially. And if they start to ban acetone and methanol (which so far is available here in France and Switzerland in any supermarket), how to even clean optics? Somehow I think that the days of the greatest personal freedom are over.
Joe Farina

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by Joe Farina »

Things are getting ever more restrictive, even in the US. Just yesterday, I asked an engineer friend to order some Rhodamine 6G, because I was really drawing a blank on how to get it. He said that some chemical supply companies won't supply chemicals even to businesses with whom they don't have an existing account. These restrictions will no doubt have a strongly adverse effect on holography.
Jem

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by Jem »

I knew i'd got the link somewhere...

http://www.dhmo.org/truth/Dihydrogen-Monoxide.html

Never mind all your other fancy chemicals, this is the stuff you should be worried about. If it gets banned we're all doomed :whistle:
AndyS

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by AndyS »

Colin wrote:Hopefully we can stop this.
Yes, I hope it can be stopped by a coalition of industry, scientists and hobbyists. Of course our politicians try to fool industry and scientists by
downplaying those plans but their internal view is even a threat to any professional user of chemicals. This is apparently a reason why most of
those discussions take place in secret meetings and secret papers.
Some German hobbyists and chemists founded an association of legal users of chemicals called IVNT http://www.ivnt.de because of this and other plans
(e.g. the Christian Democrats CDU and several police organization influenced by the said lobbyist, who became a CDU member a few weeks before this
infamous campaign was started, planned even a ban to read all textbooks that contain any instructions how to produce explosive, toxic or harmfull chemicals). What happened in Germany looks like a witchhunt 400 years ago. Last week I read the shocking text of a conviction of an engineer because
of possession of legal materials.
Already I am seeing increasing requests from EU holographers for simple chemicals.
In Germany this is a problem since the 1990s when dichromates were defined as CMR-chemicals. The EU consumer-protection restrictions for sale of CMR-chemicals to the general public were in Germany interpreted as a police-measure against poisoners that require a stricter ban. Besides users of developer-chemicals were under the suspicion to make illegal drugs from those aromatic chemicals.
Pretty soon we will need a permit to buy sodium chloride!
Here you can see the list that was distributed under German authorities and that is apparently used by the EU explosives precursors task force, too, to get an impression:

http://www.versuchschemie.de/upload/files1/26261902.gif
http://www.versuchschemie.de/upload/files1/54673790.gif
http://www.versuchschemie.de/upload/files1/99350868.gif
http://www.versuchschemie.de/upload/files1/66394857.gif
http://www.versuchschemie.de/upload/files1/40139120.gif
http://www.versuchschemie.de/upload/files1/17811467.gif

They simply listed all chemicals sold by the dealer that was denounced by the lobbyist and looked for any use that might involve an illegal use(e.g. a pyrotechnic use) or that might yield any explosive material. Even entries that are obviously wrong were listed.

You can find a short summary of some of those plans of the European Union e.g. here:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex ... FIN:EN:PDF
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex ... IN:EN:HTML
www.sprenginfo.com/downloads/download.php?dl_id=142
The ban of acids etc. is mentioned as No. 2.2.1

I can post more detailed information in a few days.
AndyS

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by AndyS »

wler wrote:And if they start to ban acetone and methanol (which so far is available here in France and Switzerland in any supermarket), how to even clean optics?
Yes, this is an example how those plans might even affect optics/physics. In Switzerland you have luck that Switzerland is no member of the EU.
The Swiss police was more sceptical about the theses spread by said lobbyist and German police:
http://www.melani.admin.ch/dokumentatio ... ml?lang=en (page 19, look for "PAN
AM", a part of the name of the make-money-fast by spreading fears-lobbyist). Therefore only very few (drug related) house searches took place in Switzerland although German police denounced more customers of those dealers.
Nevertheless the German government was asked by the conference of environment ministers (UMK) to use the G8 conference in Germany to
encourage other countries to copy those measures.
Joe Farina wrote:Things are getting ever more restrictive, even in the US. Just yesterday, I asked an engineer friend to order some Rhodamine 6G, because I was really drawing a blank on how to get it. He said that some chemical supply companies won't supply chemicals even to businesses with whom they don't have an existing account. These restrictions will no doubt have a strongly adverse effect on holography.
I didn't know that such a situation is already reached in the US. I only read a long list of chemicals that require a background check by the
secret service(?) according to a homeland defense paper but this is apparently only necessary for large amounts in the range of tons or
at least "a placardable amount" for most chemicals (except for toxic gases?) while German authorities are interested to check
or deny any purchase of even a few grams in order to prosecute or prevent each sparkler experiment. They also use the technique to
place large parts of those restrictions in treaties with associations of dealers or they are threatening dealers by a new paragraph that
makes it a felony to sell a chemical if authorities think it shouldn't be sold although the sale and the use are legal.
This makes it more difficult to take legal action against a denial of delivery.

In my opinion those plans are even a threat to large parts of industry. I cannot understand that our politicians are so ignorant.
If I look through recent papers and patent applications inventors from Asia (e.g. China, India) already produced many important results.
If more and more obstacles are introduced in the purchase of even harmless household chemicals in Europe this will have a strong negative
impact on research and the number of patents from inventors in Europe and the United States.
Thieu

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by Thieu »

Colin Kaminski wrote:Pretty soon we will need a permit to buy sodium chloride!
You bet! It's a very important precursor in the manufacture of the sodium chlorate mentioned on the blacklist! Dihydrogen monoxide is an important substrate for this reaction (that for security reasons will not be elaborated upon). Suffice to say that positive electrodes (very strong oxidizers that terrorists can easily produce) play a role as well. Therefore it would be a good idea to ban both, and restricts the methods of generating them. In this regard, the use of copper, zinc, vinegar, lithium, nickel and magnets will have to be licensed and solar cells be restricted only for use in space applications.

As an alternative for DCG, I'd recommend the following based on FEG:

- use iron nails , distilled stale urine and lemon juice to generate ferric ammonium citrate. Use rhubarb to generate the oxalate if rhubarb plantations aren't yet eradicated by defoliant spraying. Illegal electrolysis will have to carried out,but if current is produced electrostatically (human powered van der graaf generators are an option) detection rate is low.
- dissolve in gelatin (often prohibited because of its use as a dextrin substitute), otherwise use gummy bear candy.
- expose for 3 hours using filtered candle light sent through a pinhole. Unfortunately coherence length will be reduced, so only plastic coins are a suitable object.
- Develop with Persil brand laundry detergent (desensitized perborate that generates hydrogen peroxide in aqueous solution)
- dehydrate in vacuum (wine saver will suffice if used correctly) or strong whisky.
- Enjoy in sunlight!
Jem

EU plans new restrictions on hundreds of important chemicals

Post by Jem »

Thieu wrote:As an alternative for DCG, I'd recommend the following based on FEG:

- use iron nails , distilled stale urine and lemon juice to generate ferric ammonium citrate. Use rhubarb to generate the oxalate if rhubarb plantations aren't yet eradicated by defoliant spraying. Illegal electrolysis will have to carried out,but if current is produced electrostatically (human powered van der graaf generators are an option) detection rate is low.
- dissolve in gelatin (often prohibited because of its use as a dextrin substitute), otherwise use gummy bear candy.
- expose for 3 hours using filtered candle light sent through a pinhole. Unfortunately coherence length will be reduced, so only plastic coins are a suitable object.
- Develop with Persil brand laundry detergent (desensitized perborate that generates hydrogen peroxide in aqueous solution)
- dehydrate in vacuum (wine saver will suffice if used correctly) or strong whisky.
- Enjoy in sunlight!
HeHe... Love the sense of humour :lol:
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