Artlover said:
thedoclc said:
The main threat from this man may be either the possibility more reasonable and sinister folks might acquire radioactive materials from him or just contamination of his locale by substances no sane individual would let this fruitcake handle.
See my previous reply. ANYONE can already legaly buy readioactive materials in small non dangerous quanities. Your concern here is completely invalid and moot.
That does not invalidate my point. This nut was handling compounds which are known to have health risks and should be handled as hazmat by non-morons. I'm not talking about him building a dirty bomb. Based on the photos of his kitchen I think more local contamination is certainly a possibility. Put simply, I would not want someone mucking about like this in an apartment which shares a ventilation system with mine. He was working with radium, a known carcinogen, and was based on what we know working with little to no safe lab practice.
Analogies are always suspect, but this would be like having having some crackpot who thinks he's a microbiologist fiddle around with Strept, some agar, and a blow dryer. He may not unleash a plague, but he may just give his neighbors pneumonia.
And yes, anyone can -buy- these materials, but when someone already has them stockpiled, it's a different situation because I do not believe he had control over where his hazmat materials were. Again, I think you believe I'm talking about a spectacular act - the kind the word terrorism usually evokes - when I'm thinking smaller, like dumb kids with gunpowder and free time. For example, if I had ammonium nitrate for agricultural purposes, and I did not take precautions with it, I would be at least partly responsible and liable if some idiot winds up deciding to have fun with it, steals it, and winds up burning down a barn. Likewise, if I contaminate my local area with the products I'm using (lawfully), I may still be responsible and liable for the harm this does to other people.
