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
I couldn't agree more with your statement, and I think guidelines on its transportation is a wonderful suggestion.
I think this improves farmer lives and how they farm but I also think this could be very dangerous. But If it is not accesible to farmers it will be very hard to do their jobs, this prodct should not beable to purchase without a licesnse to do so. The government should take a rold in this to help setttle the disagrement.
I agree with you, I think that there can be some way to somehow make it safer, and if not then don't do it at all, If it is reisking the life of the farmers then I think they should not do it for the sake of the farmers lives.
Should ammonium nitrate be less accessible? Yes, it should be less accessible to the average farmer who wants to spread it on his crops. But, it also works great for growing plants such as corn and is able to boost the yield of your crop. The person using ammonium nitrate will have to take extra precautions when using it because it is so dangerous.
I think that Ammonium Nitrate can be used for humans to benefit from like using it for plants because they get a ton of nitrate, but I also think that it can do a lot of harm. Because if it is used in a lot of explosives for mining, etc. Since it is so accessible for people to get like on Amazon and other platfroms, I believe a lot of people can use it for really bad things, like blowing up nuclear plants or something bad like that. I definitely think that it should be less accessible for people to get like maybe the government or someone could make it so that you have to have a certain permit or ID to use it, or just completely outlaw it and make people use something else.
I think your personal identification permit is a phenominal idea, and that it could be effectively used nation-wide.
It is very helpful to farmers, so if it is less accessible it will be harder for farmers to do their job. I think that it should be less accessible for the average everyday person, but they need to figure out a way to make it so farmers can still buy it for their crops.
I agree with you, but how do you think people should go about your proposal? Would a new legalazation system be required? should laws or regulations be put in place? How aboutthe companies that use it for quarrying and constuction?
I think that farmers would not like this to be a law because it is one of the most common fertilizers in America. There haven't been any explosions and things that I have heard of in a while. I think that it will be ok for the farmers to keep doing it but others to get a new way.
While I agree with your statement on farmers' stance, I do not beleive that it's a risk worth taking. Besides, the Beirut incident was only a few years ago during 2020.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next