Quote: Originally posted by NEMO-Chemistry | Quote: Originally posted by unionised | Most of those laws fall into UK law as regulations under the Health + Safety at work etc Act.
Since amateurs are not at work the regs don't cover us.
You seem not to have read what the enforcing authority says about COMAH
"The Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations ensuring that businesses:
Take all necessary measures to prevent major accidents involving dangerous substances"
http://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/
A police officer turning up at your house has little authority to enforce the regs under the HSAW act (That's the HSE inspectors' job) but he will
probbaly misapply the anti terrorism or drugs control laws.
If you set a block of flats on fire it's not COMAH. There are clear rules about what is and what isn't.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l111.pdf
You would need to store 10 tonnes of ether to reach the COMAH (lower tier) threshold.
[Edited on 27-12-17 by unionised] |
What about phosgene etc? most of it does come under work related or business. But for many of us when we get a knock on the door what are we? Do we
say home chemists and sorry about the Nitric acid, or go the company route as non profit research chemists?
. |
Well, for phosgene the lower limit is 300Kg- hardly home chemistry.
Possession of weed is currently a criminal offence- the only sensible advice is make sure you don't possess it.
However, possession of copper sulphate isn't an offence- even if you have a thousand tons of it.
If you are a business which stocks copper sulphate then you had better follow the rules for storage, labelling, risk assessment and so o.
But, as an individual (at least until recently) the regulations didn't apply to you.
The problem is that recent changes in regulations have removed your right to own some materials- notably "explosive precursors" which covers many
oxidising agents etc.
So, as you say, legal home chemistry is pretty much dead.
If you are legally adult, you can set up a company and - as long as you jump through the legislative hoops- you can buy stuff.
But the laws that apply to companies are complex- explosives manufacture, for example, requires a license. Very few individuals will ever get granted
that license.
So pyrotechnics are off the list of things you can do as a company- and you can't do it as an individual either.
|