Hi, The Halifax explosion was indeed a very dramatic event. Anyone unfamiliar with the story should certainly read up on it. It was truly incredible. The link to the Wikipedia article was previously posted. A couple of important points about this story. The ship that blew up was carrying metric *tons* of picric acid. The ship also was carrying tons of other explosive material (nitroglycerine amongst others). If your lab has tons of picric acid (not 10-100 grams like most labs) and tons of other explosives, you might have cause for panic. If not, you likely have an extremely small amount stored under water or in a solution which poses less risk when used & stored properly than many other chemicals in a lab. I don't mean to say there is no risk, but I would say the concern is a bit overly dramatic. Like a carpenter, know your tools and how to treat them and they will serve you well. Otherwise ANY of the tools you have are likely to bite you.
Amos _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
