Unlocked Labs: A Candy Store for Terrorists?
February 17th, 2012A hearty “thank you” goes out to Alex, a concerned reader from the East Coast who sent a link to this interesting video. It is an investigative report about unlocked chemistry labs and the ease with which a terrorist could steal hazardous materials:
The concerns of the report are valid and important, even if the presentation is a bit sensationalistic and uninformed at times. (NITROGEN, OMG!)
In grad school in Massachusetts, one thing that struck me as weird was how we were required to keep our hazardous waste cabinet locked at all times, while the labs and stockrooms could be left wide open. What magically happened when the 4L jug of mixed organic solvents moved from the hood in my (unlocked) bay to the cabinet in the hallway such that a lock was now required?
We always thought the rule was designed to stymie terrorists searching for materials to make a “dirty bomb”, but the fact of the matter is that most of the nastiest reagents have already been quenched once they make their way into a waste container. The stockrooms and hoods are what I’d be concerned about. I can recall a number of lab cleanups where people reported finding particularly nasty things that nobody knew were there, and hence, nobody would have reported as missing. These included radioactive salts and a small quantity of ricin in an unlocked freezer.
Keeping all doors locked shut will be a major inconvenience for some labs, but it is probably just a matter of time until everyone is required to do so. The current situation is a time bomb.
Link to original site.
February 17th, 2012 at 9:30 AM
We were never concerned about terrorists; however, all of our balances had to be tethered to the bench because drug dealers were known to steal them.
February 17th, 2012 at 10:08 AM
Has there ever been a recorded case of a terrorist stealing lab chemicals to make a bomb?
February 17th, 2012 at 10:21 AM
I find this a little alarmist. I am not saying it can’t happen, but I think the cost-benefit ratio for the wannabe terrorist would probably be too high to make it worthwhile. Any terrorist willing to accept the risk of capture or death would want to aim for something much more spectacular.
February 17th, 2012 at 10:44 AM
I went to Penn, it is very easy for people to get in, but for some reason they pass on the chemicals and go for the wallets.
February 17th, 2012 at 11:08 AM
Why bother raiding a chemistry lab for bomb making materials when you can get everything you need at a pharmacy/auto parts store?
February 17th, 2012 at 11:41 AM
Since WWI chemical weapons were basically whatever crap was on the shelves of chemical labs (from In The Pipeline), I would be concerned about people stealing materials for chemical weapons first, since they require little in the way of manipulation to make a damaging weapon (probably not 9/11 or even OK City scale, but more than big enough), or even their use as murder weapons rather than as political instruments. Other bad uses come to mind.
CW: I don’t know – car bombers can’t count on a huge number of deaths from their actions, but they keep signing up. I know there’s societal support for them, but even so, they still only have single lives. As a murder weapon – spectacular is undesirable, but the targets are just as dead.
February 17th, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Re: locked waste cabinets.
Someone’s hardline interpretation of the “under the control” portion of USEPA/Massachusetts hazardous waste satellite accumulation rules? (e.g. “Both the satellite point(s) and the accumulation area must be under the control of the hazardous waste generator.”)
http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/laws/sataccfs.pdf
February 17th, 2012 at 11:46 AM
Here’s more on MA’s interpretation of satellite accumulation:
http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/laws/labmemo.pdf
February 17th, 2012 at 11:51 AM
The tone is hilariously alarmist and a bit dangerous. It’s almost as if they’re giving the terrorists ideas.
However, I’ve wondered about this too. Not just for making bombs but for making recreational drugs. There actually have been multiple incidents on my campus where people walked into labs and walked out with laptops. Once while there were actually people in the lab! And there’ve been incidents of undergrads literally climbing the walls and getting into labs through open windows just to say they could. But think of the utter panic if someone made off with a radioactive waste bucket. The hot waste most labs generate is of minimal, if any risk, to the public, but try explaining that to a layperson.
February 17th, 2012 at 12:05 PM
One thing which these reports always fail to recognize is the importance of concentration. There is a big difference between 12 M HCl and 0.5 M HCl, but for these stories, both are “HYDROCHLORIC ACID!!!”
Also, why dwell on the availability of HCl in a chemistry lab when you can waltz down the street to Home Depot and buy the same thing? Look for it as “muriatic acid.”
February 17th, 2012 at 1:22 PM
I’m not going to listen to it, but I assume this is a recent story from a local news channel?
It probably has something to do with this:
http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/public%20factsheets/tv/2011-2012-Sweeps-Dates.pdf
Sweep Month Measurement Period
November 2011 October 27 – November 23
February 2012 February 2 – February 29
If it’s indeed a sweeps-related article, I’m surprised that it’s not “Can Terrorists Steal Chemicals to Make Your Sex Organs Larger?”
February 17th, 2012 at 2:21 PM
hey guys there are TERRORISTS. And there are CHEMICALS that the TERRORISTS want to use for their TERRORIST attacks…
How does this garbage get on the air?
February 17th, 2012 at 3:32 PM
Yeah, that’s a bunch of crap. Is the stuff in a typical chemistry lab really that much more dangerous than what you can buy in stores? I doubt it. As Paul notes, you can just buy muriatic acid.
In grad school we had a policy to always keep our lab doors locked when nobody was around, but that was to prevent punk undergraduates from coming in and stealing people’s computers, not because some terrorist was going to find something dangerous among the miscellaneous junk in our stockroom.
February 17th, 2012 at 5:28 PM
Reading over my post again, I think I was too easy on Fox News here. The underlying point of securing labs is a valid one, but the presentation is way Way WAAAAAAY over the top in terms of sensationalism.
The reporter starts by referencing the Tokyo sarin attack and the WTC bombing, but you’re sure as hell not going to find a nerve agent like sarin or large quantities of high explosives in an empty teaching lab.
Next, how many times does the reporter punch the word TERRORists(s) and CHEMicals?
Sorry, neither the bottle of 1N HCl nor the nitrogen tank scares me. And, by the way, who steals a nitrogen tank, anyway? I mean, besides a grad student too lazy to order one.
I also loved how he called the fume hood a “glass case”. It emphasized these dumbasses know nothing about chemistry or chemical laboratories, yet entered the lab with no proper protective equipment.
Finally, the reporter clearly said “ASS SEX” at the 5:39 mark. Very puerile and amateur.
February 17th, 2012 at 5:35 PM
A parallel discussion on the video here:
http://www.metafilter.com/112919/Chemistry
February 17th, 2012 at 5:43 PM
Oh jeez. They’ve got a follow up story, and apparently, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) is concerned:
Reaction From DC On Fox Investigation: MyFoxPHILLY.com
February 17th, 2012 at 5:52 PM
A friendly e-mail sent to reporter Jeff Cole:
February 17th, 2012 at 7:17 PM
I think everyone is way too easy on this kind of thinking. It is too easy to get wrapped up in the fear.
The vast number of chemicals, combined with the fact that there will be very few things a terrorist is looking for would more or less dissuade them from trying.
I think everyone has to keep in mind that they also have to be able to do considerably better than than common materials. They can already get guns, gasoline (molotov cocktails), thermite, diesel/fertilizer, industrial radiation sources, united nuclear, or car batteries to name a few.
20 grams of “radioactive” uranyl chloride sounds really nasty, but would make a pretty useless dirty bomb. Pyrophoric materials are like molotov cocktails with an extra degree of self-danger. Acids are not terrorist weapons – what the hell is a terrorist going to do – dissolve your building down.
While there are certainly bomb-making compounds available in most labs – I mean you could use glycerin and nitric acid if you were so inclined (here’s to hoping that all terrorists do it this way from now on)…any terrorist with the wherewithal to use these chemicals to make bombs could find another, easier way. Unfortunately, t attempting to hide/lock every marginally dangerous substance in the entire country will not stop terrorism.
I think pretty much every argument here pretty much applies to drug chemists as well. The uneducated would be confused as hell by all the chemicals (think about how hard it is to find what you want when you have the inventory in front of you). The big time ones probably don’t really want 15G of iodine, and a bottle of acid they could get at the hardware store. Designer drugs might be a different story…but I imagine those guys are trained chemists anyway and probably have a supply figured out that they don’t risk getting caught.
February 17th, 2012 at 7:25 PM
[...] posted about a Philadelphia TV station’s report: Unlocked Labs: A Candy Store for Terrorists? The segment does a beautiful job of marrying the hysteria of “Chemicals are bad!!!” [...]
February 18th, 2012 at 7:46 AM
When I was a grad student, someone walked away with my laptop. I would have gladly given up my 1 M HCl squeeze bottle.
February 18th, 2012 at 1:12 PM
It seems like locking all of the doors all of the time would be rather inconvenient for the fire department as well.
February 18th, 2012 at 4:01 PM
Security at Harvard is trivial. I wanted to say Hello to you 2 years ago in April, after graduate alumni day was over. Although it was a late Saturday afternoon and the chemistry building was locked, I just waited until someone used whatever pass they needed, drew myself up to full beard, smiled and walked in right behind them. No questions asked. I think I left you a note. When inside, no one gave me a fishy look. I could have walked off with anything I wished.
February 18th, 2012 at 4:51 PM
I know it’s apples and oranges, but I sincerely doubt this happens much in “actual” synthetic labs. I mean, what lab is completely EMPTY during a weekday? There’s always that random postdoc who doesn’t want to do group meeting, or an undergrad studying for a test.
Furthermore, it’s almost a moot point in industry. Chemistry firms go out of their way to be nondescript, and most have 2 or more levels of security to get to anything worthwhile.
February 18th, 2012 at 5:33 PM
See Arr Oh has another take-down of the Fox story here:
http://justlikecooking.blogspot.com/2012/02/are-you-scared-yet.html
February 18th, 2012 at 6:33 PM
My grad school lab lost an old rotovap over Xmas or Thanksgiving. It was probably the local meth lab problem. How useful could it be really? I think balances also went missing if not chained down; they would disappear even when they weren’t any better/different than one you could buy in kitchen supplies.
February 19th, 2012 at 8:40 AM
Somehow I’m not surprised this is from Fox News. They’re so bad it’s just unbelievable…
February 19th, 2012 at 8:41 AM
Actually, my mistake — I guess Fox news and Fox29 are different entities. Just goes to show how often I watch either, ha…
February 20th, 2012 at 8:45 AM
Hahaha. He says “ass sex” like three times. Someone in the viewing area should write a complaint to the FCC and get a fine levied against the station.
February 21st, 2012 at 12:24 AM
This is sensationalist fear-mongering and another example of popular media dragging the term ‘chemist’ through the dirt. Locked labs are serious business, but I think one is more likely to get their laptop stolen than their KCN.
February 21st, 2012 at 7:33 AM
@jenna lynn:
“but I think one is more likely to get their laptop stolen than their KCN.”
Why would someone steal K. C. Nicoloaou?
February 21st, 2012 at 7:47 AM
The guy’s a national resource. You don’t find that concentration of vowels outside of Samoa.
February 21st, 2012 at 8:06 AM
Besides, where else are we going to get 0.1 mg of maitotoxin?
February 21st, 2012 at 11:53 AM
[Disclaimer: I haven't been able to look at the video]
I am constantly shocked at the inconsistent standards on this kind of thing. A few UK-based examples:
i) At a well-known central London chemistry dept. a couple of a years ago, several friends from outside the college have managed to suprise me in my lab, even with heightened security measures; they didn’t need to even speak to anyone to do it.
ii) At the same college the fire safety people complained at solvent bottles being visible, nto beause they were in danger of accident, but in danger of arson!?!?! They really are clutching at straws to stay relevant, whiel missing the big points.
iii) In the UK farmers are limited to keeping only 20 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, lest bad people get their hands on it. The OK city bomb used ca. 1 tonne.
People will always get their hands on this kind of material if they really want to: going far enough to prevent it will have greater undesirable results thank bombings themselves. In London we’ve lived with them for a long time, without going [too] crazy on regulations. That said, a reasonable level of security (locked doors so that people at least need to tailgate; inventory of stock rooms, so there are no suprises on cleanout; departments that actually talk and know each other, perhaps the most important measure to spot intruders) is just that, reasonable. Will controversy like that [I understadn to be contained] in the video help? I doubt it
February 22nd, 2012 at 8:20 AM
It is all about scale. There is not enough of anything in an academic lab to do much damage. Home depot on the other hand….
February 23rd, 2012 at 10:03 AM
Paul, great e-mail to Jeff. Faux News is an appropriate soubriquet. I’ll bet Ben Franklin would have had a ball with this.
February 29th, 2012 at 2:46 PM
This is an astounding article. You’re worried about unlocked labs when you give the keys to foreign graduate students with no allegiance to the USA?
You are either blind or willfully ignorant. Probably the latter since you no doubt wish to exploit cheap foreign labor in you future lab.
February 29th, 2012 at 3:52 PM
Your dum.
March 16th, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Ether and HCl are both on the governments list for concern of release by terrorist attack. But only if they’re stored in quantities greater than:
Ethyl ether 10,000 pounds
Hydrochloric acid 15,000 pounds
I’m no expert, but those labs would need much bigger storage cabinets.
April 2nd, 2012 at 4:11 AM
[...] serve as the unspoken subtitle of the news report he’s blogging about. First highlighted on ChemBark the investigative report from US TV channel Fox29 is about “unlocked chemistry labs and the ease [...]