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>> as they unlikely to use it for preserving processed meats Maybe, but as long ago as at age 12 I was buying it from the local pharmacy to make awesome smoke

by skeeter2020 4y ago

>> as they unlikely to use it for preserving processed meats Maybe, but as long ago as at age 12 I was buying it from the local pharmacy to make awesome smoke bombs. >> In 2022 there is just no excuse for this, nobody should be deploying software in production that is capable of this kind of harm You realize the #1 founding reason of the internet outside of sharing academic research was to distribute an entire "book" capable of this type of harm?

bastawhiz 4y ago
The purity of the chemical that Amazon is selling is high enough to make it inappropriate for virtually any other (consumer) use case besides suicide. This isn't the same as what you bought when you were 12.
- yababa_y 4y ago
  please explain how increased purity makes the compound less suitable, not MORE, for household use? our “kitchen lab” has all sorts of chemically pure ingredients and I feel comfortable knowing there aren’t random impurities in my “house grade” feedstocks.
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  - bastawhiz 4y ago
    The purity of food grade sodium nitrate is 6% percent, and then you mix it with salt. The purity of what Amazon is selling is ~99%. Purity here doesn't mean the rest is impurities, it means the percent of what you're buying is that compound. The rest is usually common salt, in this case. The reason it's done like this is so mixing up a teaspoon and a tablespoon isn't a lethal difference. The LD_lo of sodium nitrite is a bit over 5g for a 75kg person. You use an ounce of 6% sodium nitrite to cure about 25kg of meat. That's about 28g, or 1.7g of pure sodium nitrite. The equivalent lethal dose of what Amazon is selling is equal to ~three ounces of the stuff you use for food (enough for 75kg of meat), which ends up looking like a teaspoon at 99% purity. Do you have the confidence to correctly use a compound to cure meat where (for household use) curing 5kg requires so little chemical that you'd need to pinch it onto a scale?
- deleted 4y ago
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- washadjeffmad 4y ago
  That's absurd. The detail that most products contain a lower concentration is not inconsistent with this compound's concentration being practical. The "purity" is also a non-issue - the harm is in the amount. While I buy 100% sucrose in 10lb quantities, the cupcakes I make with it are a small fraction sugar. It would be very difficult to guage my recipes if the concentration of sugar I bought varied per bag. Sucrose is explosive if atomized and ignited or mixed with oxidizing agents. The same is true of salt (deadly at 3g/kg body mass and sold in 5-10lb quantities, by the way), which is important when I mix up a dry rub or table seasoning. Why did you speak universally for something you have copious evidence to dispute?
  - bastawhiz 4y ago
    > It would be very difficult to guage my recipes if the concentration of sugar I bought varied per bag The US government sets the purity for sodium nitrite for use in food. You can't buy food-grade sodium nitrite at other concentrations. And using too much sucrose or salt in your recipe doesn't make your cupcakes lethal. Comparing salt to the toxicity of sodium nitrite is an absolutely bonkers argument. You'd need about 225g of salt (about 3/4 cup) to be lethal for a 75kg person. Good luck eating that much salt. By comparison, you need 5g of sodium nitrite.
BenjiWiebe 4y ago
Aren't you thinking of potassium nitrate?

bastawhiz 4y ago

The purity of the chemical that Amazon is selling is high enough to make it inappropriate for virtually any other (consumer) use case besides suicide. This isn't the same as what you bought when you were 12.

yababa_y 4y ago
please explain how increased purity makes the compound less suitable, not MORE, for household use? our “kitchen lab” has all sorts of chemically pure ingredients and I feel comfortable knowing there aren’t random impurities in my “house grade” feedstocks.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- bastawhiz 4y ago
  The purity of food grade sodium nitrate is 6% percent, and then you mix it with salt. The purity of what Amazon is selling is ~99%. Purity here doesn't mean the rest is impurities, it means the percent of what you're buying is that compound. The rest is usually common salt, in this case. The reason it's done like this is so mixing up a teaspoon and a tablespoon isn't a lethal difference. The LD_lo of sodium nitrite is a bit over 5g for a 75kg person. You use an ounce of 6% sodium nitrite to cure about 25kg of meat. That's about 28g, or 1.7g of pure sodium nitrite. The equivalent lethal dose of what Amazon is selling is equal to ~three ounces of the stuff you use for food (enough for 75kg of meat), which ends up looking like a teaspoon at 99% purity. Do you have the confidence to correctly use a compound to cure meat where (for household use) curing 5kg requires so little chemical that you'd need to pinch it onto a scale?
deleted 4y ago
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washadjeffmad 4y ago
That's absurd. The detail that most products contain a lower concentration is not inconsistent with this compound's concentration being practical. The "purity" is also a non-issue - the harm is in the amount. While I buy 100% sucrose in 10lb quantities, the cupcakes I make with it are a small fraction sugar. It would be very difficult to guage my recipes if the concentration of sugar I bought varied per bag. Sucrose is explosive if atomized and ignited or mixed with oxidizing agents. The same is true of salt (deadly at 3g/kg body mass and sold in 5-10lb quantities, by the way), which is important when I mix up a dry rub or table seasoning. Why did you speak universally for something you have copious evidence to dispute?
- bastawhiz 4y ago
  > It would be very difficult to guage my recipes if the concentration of sugar I bought varied per bag The US government sets the purity for sodium nitrite for use in food. You can't buy food-grade sodium nitrite at other concentrations. And using too much sucrose or salt in your recipe doesn't make your cupcakes lethal. Comparing salt to the toxicity of sodium nitrite is an absolutely bonkers argument. You'd need about 225g of salt (about 3/4 cup) to be lethal for a 75kg person. Good luck eating that much salt. By comparison, you need 5g of sodium nitrite.

BenjiWiebe 4y ago

Aren't you thinking of potassium nitrate?