Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Do EU regulations even exist in eastern europe?

nitropyrotech - 17-10-2025 at 18:01

So, all hobby chemist in the EU have it very hard, you cant get anything in the western EU countries here without being a licensed lab or company, but other than that in eastern EU contries you can easilly get highly concentrated sulfuric acid drain cleaner that is per se not allowed in the EU. Or pure Ammonium nitrate fertilizer that you can buy in bulk if you have the money for. There also few other candidates like Potassium nitrate or in general every nitrate salt. Sodium azide should also be no problem to buy in the east. There more forbidden chemicals either because of drug or explosive precursors that are freely availble there. So anyone could explain why?

Pumukli - 17-10-2025 at 23:26

Errm...

You can't "easily get highly concentrated sulfuric acid drain cleaner" at least not in that country what I'm familiar with. All drain cleaners here are NaOH/Al based solids or some sort of "goey mixture" that I highly doubt would contain sulfuric acid.

Pure ammonium nitrate is still available.
Potasium nitrate can be bought, yes.
You can buy these things even without a "grower's license". On the other hand you can no longer buy 50% nitric acid without it. (Larger scale hydroponics, drip tape irrigation would be legit reasons to have it.)

Sodium azide? I never tried but I doubt that those specialty chemical companies who carry it would sell any amount of azides to an unknown individual without some sort of legit "license to use"!

Those forbidden chemicals that are drug or explosive precursors in the West are watched and forbidden for a layman here too!
Potassium permanganate, any decent conc. H2O2, nitric acid, sulfuric acid; ephedrine, etc. is forbidden.

bariumbromate - 17-10-2025 at 23:45

onyxmet.com for azides in europe

ExcerptSix - 19-10-2025 at 00:15

Just FIY you can get 95% H2SO4 drain cleaner OTC for like 5ish euros per liter in Greece.
During covid times I remember ordering like a liter of 30% H2O2 which arrived to my door no problem I'm not sure if that's still the case. For example chemical supply stores refuse to sell it without a license but you can still get it from pharmacies. Same for Potassium permanganate.
Nitric acid is hard to get though. I do see it offered as 50-55% in some agro stores as drip/hydro cleaner.
Aside from official sources there's private sale websites like the US craigslist that have people selling pretty much everything though some sellers are suspicious and glow a little. Like a guy selling batches of red phosphorous and ephedrine for hundreds of euros. But sometimes you can find gems like reagent grade perchloric acid.

[Edited on 19-10-2025 by ExcerptSix]

nitropyrotech - 26-10-2025 at 00:08

Quote: Originally posted by bariumbromate  
onyxmet.com for azides in europe

You can get Sodium Azide in bigger ammounts like 100g for only around 70€ incl. shipping, I never tested the product, but I have like 50g sitting around at home

nitropyrotech - 26-10-2025 at 00:13

Quote: Originally posted by ExcerptSix  
Just FIY you can get 95% H2SO4 drain cleaner OTC for like 5ish euros per liter in Greece.
During covid times I remember ordering like a liter of 30% H2O2 which arrived to my door no problem I'm not sure if that's still the case. For example chemical supply stores refuse to sell it without a license but you can still get it from pharmacies. Same for Potassium permanganate.
Nitric acid is hard to get though. I do see it offered as 50-55% in some agro stores as drip/hydro cleaner.
Aside from official sources there's private sale websites like the US craigslist that have people selling pretty much everything though some sellers are suspicious and glow a little. Like a guy selling batches of red phosphorous and ephedrine for hundreds of euros. But sometimes you can find gems like reagent grade perchloric acid.

[Edited on 19-10-2025 by ExcerptSix]


There are a few scetchy suppliers in Europe like biolaboratorium or chemmarkt, who sell 5l of acetic anhydride at once but only for a limited time but for ridiculous prices and some more suppliers