Ammonium nitrate is a globally popular fertilizer, with a market estimated to be worth 24 billion USD by 2026. It’s extremely efficient, seeing as the plants are getting a direct deposit of nitrate, as well as the ammonium compound gradually turning into nitrate too. It’s extremely soluble, meaning it dissolves in water and is well suited for irrigation systems. However, Ammonium nitrate is also 94% of what is in ANFO. ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil), makes up 80% of the explosives used in North America. It’s widely applied for mining, construction, and quarrying purposes. Because it’s such a popular fertilizer, it is incredibly easy to obtain, and thus a very dangerous threat.
On August 4th of 2020, there was a deadly explosion in Beirut, a middle-eastern port. A relatively small Russian-owned cargo ship transporting 2,750 metric tons of Ammonium nitrate arrived at the port in 2013. It was on route to Mozambique, but was ordered into said port due to seafaring violations. The captain abandoned the ship and crew, and later claimed that the ship was impounded for neglecting to pay fees. The ammonium nitrate was moved to a warehouse, where it sat for six years until a faulty welding job ignited the explosive, killing at least 200 and injuring over 6,000.
Another instance of the disastrous power of ammonium nitrate was on April 16th of 1947. The industrial tragedy occurred in Texas City, a town with about the population of 16,000. Most of the people who lived there worked at chemical and petroleum plants on the harbor. A ship that frequently ported at one of the plants was carrying a monstrous load of ammonium nitrate, many times more than the amount used in the Beirut accident. While leading the ship, somebody smelled smoke. In an unknown location within the ship, a fire had obviously broken out. The captain tried to smother the fire in steam, which only turned the smoke a strange color. The strange smoke brought people from the town to watch the fire. Suddenly, the entire ship combusted. The explosion was immense, so much so that it could be heard in Louisiana, 200 miles away. One of the nearby chemical plant’s oil supply went up in flames. Nobody knows how many died, many of the identifiable remains blasted away upon the initial explosion.
In my opinion, Ammonium nitrate is far too dangerous and far too easy to get a hold of. These two events were caused by accident, however, there are many fatal tales of intentional bombings caused by this terrifying compound as well. I believe we should be putting forth an effort to find a safer fertilizer to use, as well as make the process of obtaining such a deadly chemical more difficult.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcAHNYtFCyQ
Questions:
What are your opinions of the pros and cons of Ammonium nitrate?
Should we do anything about how Ammonium nitrate is used and look for a substitute?
Should ammonium nitrate be less accessible?
Replies
Very interesting topic and one that was new to me. Great job Anna!
I belive that ammoniun nitrate is very bad and harmful for you but the plants need the nutriants from it plus theirs always going to be pros and cons with everything and if we deam that on thing is hazardous that your going to have to find muliple alternatives for it.
Yes, there are some pros to using ammonium nitrate as a fertilizer for proving essential nutriants to plants. But there are cons that can happen like it can be dangerous if it gets out because inhaling it is very hazardous. If we don't do anything it could cause problems.
my pros of ammonium nitrate is it could be used to fertilizes and prove essential nutriants to plants we need. but cons are it can be very hazerdas when inhaling. I think we should just leave it be it hasnt become a big problem like other things. I do think that it should be less accessible just for the fact it could be dangerous.
While I understand the pros of ammonium nitrate as a fertilizer, I think people should not be using it. It is far too risky and could easily go wrong, plus the risks outweigh the benefits because we already have plenty of fertilizers, why should we risk our lives for one that works slightly faster than others.
What are your opinions of the pros and cons of Ammonium nitrate? I think that they are about eauqal Should we do anything about how Ammonium nitrate is used and look for a substitute? yes i think there are otherways Should ammonium nitrate be less accessible? yes i agree with that
I think no matter the pros of this so called fertelizer it should not be used at all, ever. I think we need to find a substitute for this horrible chemical AS SOON AS POSSIBIE. If we do not do anything soon a lot of horrible things that could happen. It should even be able to be acessed at all.
I agree with with you when you say that we need to find a substitute, however, since the Ammonium nitrate industry is so big, it would mean lots of people without jobs as well as lots of farmer that don't know what to use instead.
I believe that we should use ammonium nitrate, this is because it acts as a good fertilizer and helps famers and many others. However I also agree that there are many dangers associated with ammonium nitrate, such as bombings.
i dissagree. i dissagree becuase we should not be using such a harch chemical on our earth. And it should not be so easy to get becuase tragedies could happen very easily and would corrupt our entire world
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