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by bchandle 6514 days ago
Read the original article: http://www.telegram.com/article/20080809/NEWS/808090323/1008...

Neither source is all that complete, but the original article indicates this guy was violating zoning law, as well as safe handling and disposal regulations. I'm a scientist, and I sympathize, but it's unfair to claim "home science is under attack" from the available evidence.
1 comments
smanek 6514 days ago
No he wasn't. The government themselves said that everything he had was "no more dangerous than typical household cleaning products."

The only law he was breaking, according to your own source, was "doing scientific research and development in a residential area, which is a violation of zoning laws."

The only thing they had him on was doing science. He wasn't working with anything remotely dangerous.

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bchandle 6514 days ago
It doesn't necessarily matter that he wasn't working with highly dangerous or toxic chemicals. My roommate works in quality at a medical devices company, and many of the regulations they deal with have to do with things like proper labeling, storage, disposal and the like. And their product is chemically inert.

While I'd hope that chem regulations aren't quite as stringent as pharma or biomedical, it isn't unfathomable that the guy broke some or many of them. Unless someone here is knowledgeable of the relevant regulatory environment (which I'm certainly not), it's unfair to make any accusations based on a blog post and a terse newspaper story.

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anamax 6514 days ago
> It doesn't necessarily matter that he wasn't working with highly dangerous or toxic chemicals.

It does if you're arguing safety.

If you're not arguing safety, what is the rational basis for shutting the guy down? Other than, of course, he didn't have a permit to do safe science.

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asnyder 6514 days ago
Home chemistry and a medical device company are two completely different things. Medical devices and pharmaceuticals fall under FDA regulations which require quality control, proper labeling, auditing etc. As far as I know this man was not working on a medical product or pharmaceutical and as such does not fall under any FDA regulations.
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