Other uses include as a heat absorber in instant cold packs. Mixed with zinc and ammonium chloride, AN can be found in survival kits because it will ignite on contact with water. Ammonium nitrate readily combines with a variety of other substances, including diesel, aluminum and even molasses, to make so-called fertilizer bombs. It's also widely available in large quantities because of its commercial applications in agriculture, and is relatively cheap.
The group allied with al-Qaeda that set off explosives in a Bali, Indonesia, nightclub district in made its main bomb with ammonium nitrate. More than people were killed. The U. Police allege the so-called Toronto 18 group of bomb plotters — of whom only 11 were ever prosecuted — planned to set off one-tonne ammonium nitrate bombs at three targets: the Toronto offices of Canada's spy agency, CSIS; the Toronto Stock Exchange; and a military base in eastern Ontario.
The plot was foiled in It used to be common for farmers and landscapers to use moderate quantities of the chemical, in the form of ANFO, to blow up and remove stubborn tree stumps on open fields. But Canada now tightly restricts the use of ANFO to open pit mines and quarries, and then only with the permission of an official called the chief inspector of explosives.
The Canadian government passed tight regulations on the storage and sale of ammonium nitrate in February The rules require, among other things, that all storage areas be locked down when nobody's working in them, that a seller inform local police of all their storage areas, and that the seller conduct weekly checks to make sure their supply hasn't been tampered with.
Anyone purchasing the chemical has to show ID or a special licence and cannot buy more than is proportional to their needs. The seller has to record the buyer's info and must deny them the chemical where there's reason to believe it will be used for a crime. Some other jurisdictions have bans on fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate because of its potential use in bomb-making. When this happens in the body, the reaction can cause fluid to accumulate in the lungs, irritation of the large airways bronchitis , inflammatory lung disease, and severe corrosive damage or burns to the mouth, throat, and stomach.
Because of something called activation energy, which is defined as the minimum energy necessary to start a chemical reaction.
But provide it with a source of energy , like a flame, spark, or even mechanical impact, and the results can be explosive. The combination of unstable nitrogen bonds in the fertilizer, plus heat from the fire, resulted in an explosion as powerful as a 2. More: Discoverers Elements Fertilizer techpages. The Daily The best of The New Yorker , every day, in your in-box, plus occasional alerts when we publish major stories.
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