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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (229703)	2/21/2002 5:30:42 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

that the less dangerous substance creates a lethal gas if mixed with acid. Look, I wouldn't expect you to know chemistry but the tip off was right in the name of the chemical potassium ferrocyanide. The key thing to look for is the "ferro" which means iron. The poison potassium cyanide or hydrogen cyanide work by combining with the iron in a persons bloodstream making it unavailable to carry oxygen. The affected person suffocates even while breathing since no oxygen circulates in the blood. Ferrocyanide indicates that the cyanide mixture is already reacted with iron and is therefore in a fairly stable state. It is what the cyanide would become after it finished poisoning someone. It can be made dangerous again by removing the iron from the molecule. This requires a very strong acid to strip the iron, for example concentrated hydrocloric acid. The reaction produces a fair amount of heat and so the cyanide that is released is in a gaseous form and would need to be captured and condensed to be reasonably transportable. The amount of cyanide that these guys could have produced would have been a few ounces at best. No doubt these 4 guys arrested with the powder were up to no good. They may have thought they had ahold of potassium cyanide which would be a nasty thing to put in a water supply. The truth is that like the shoe-bomber they have no more practical knowledge than you about these chemicals. physchem.ox.ac.uk Period and Exclamation point.!