I agree. This had the style of a "Things I won't Work With" column, except that those generally describe experiments done for pure research (or possibly militar

I agree. This had the style of a "Things I won't Work With" column, except that those generally describe experiments done for pure research (or possibly military/rocketry applications). It's interesting that chemistry for pharmaceutical purposes can involve similarly nasty substances. The article also does a great job conveying how much of a frustration minuscule yields must be.