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 think that if we robbed farmers of Ammonium nitrate as of right now, it would create a huge famine. So while extremes both have good stances, I beleive that finding a middle would be most effective. Maybe if we implemented a system where only people with a permit to use it, casualties would go down while we still can reap its benefits.
1.) I think it is good to use ammonium nitrate because, as you stated, it is a very good fertilizer and excels at plant growth. But as you stated, it is very flammable and volatile. This fertilizer could cause crops and other plants to ignite due to wildfires igniting the fertilizer.
I feel as if people should not buy it. The environmental impact would be serious in some cases like water. There are many health risks like blood being able to carry oxygen. As said it is an explosive hazard, and be misued by certain people, and if not handled properly it could lead to accidents.
I really like and agree with your point on the environmental effects of these accidents. It's something I didn't think of before, and I'd like to look into it in the future.
I think ammonium nitrate fills its purpose to being extreamly dangourus, but it also makes farmers lives eaiser as it is sometimes used to fertalize feilds.
I think ammonium nitrate is dangerous and people shouldn't be buying it. I also think that it shouldn't be so easy to find because people can get seriously injured. People shouldn't be buying it if it causes explosions. I can see why farmers buy it because it is used as a fertilizer.
I think that ammonium nitrate should be far less accessible. It is too easily available to get and too dangereous. On the other hand, it works great for farmers. There have been many many successful farmers that have used ammonium nitrate to produce crops.
I think this helps farmers and make their jobs easier but it is very dangerous because explosions have happened with this ammonim nitrate. But if it is handled with care and being very safe with it, I feel like the farmers could use it.
I agree with you when you say farmers should still be able to use it, though I do think there should still be regulations. Like not being able to just buy the stuff off Amazon.
Ammonium is nice for fertilizing things but after all of the information you just gave me I think it's safe to say people should not be able to get their hands on it easily. If it's this dangerous of a product then there should be guidelines set or some way to keep people safe while transporting and using the product.
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