Iodine illegal?

[snopes]

Comment: Just heard that iodine would become illegal on 1 August 2007. IS
this true? Since it's used so extensively in medical and first aid it
seems to be a myth.

[TrekkerScout]

There is some validity to that story if you live in Australia.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by TrekkerScout

There is some validity to that story if you live in Australia.

Drugs included in the list are ammonia, calcium, hydrogen chloride, lithium, iodine, sodium and sassafras oil.

Ammonia - given off by many domestic bleaches and also a breakdown product from urine
Calcium - found in milk and bones
Hydrogen chloride - can be given off when bicarb baking powder reacts with salt (I regularly used bicarb to deodourise my shoes and it reacted with sweat to give off HCl gas which then dissolved in the water and the resulting acid ate into my shoe leather)
Lithium - isn't this prescribed in compounds for mental conditions?
Sodium - found in common salt and baking products and sin't Australia surrounded by a whole lot of dissolved salt

It's fairly easy to establish a lawful excuse, one would expect, for someone that would have this type of thing sitting at home ... It's not a matter of ... looking in people's medicine cabinets, laundries ... we're talking about these chemicals being found in such circumstances ... (as) to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that they're being used and sourced for illegal purposes.

Phew, no need for Australians to cancel their milk

My dad has quite a few stored chemicals, but he uses them as part of his hobbies - making jewellery, not drugs.

[mags]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Sodium - found in common salt and baking products and sin't Australia surrounded by a whole lot of dissolved salt

Table salt is NaCl, not pure sodium. I believe that solid sodium will burst into flames in the presence of small amounts of water. At least if I remember correctly the story told by my chemistry teacher about someone who snuck some out of her stores, put it in his back pocket, and was tackled by one of the other teachers to put out the flames when his sweat mixed with the sodium.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by mags

Table salt is NaCl, not pure sodium. I believe that solid sodium will burst into flames in the presence of small amounts of water. At least if I remember correctly the story told by my chemistry teacher about someone who snuck some out of her stores, put it in his back pocket, and was tackled by one of the other teachers to put out the flames when his sweat mixed with the sodium.

Which is why I said found in common salt. Pure sodium is a soft, silvery metal that's highly reactive and stored in pelleted form in oil. One of our favourite end of term wind-downs (with only the teacher handling the substances) was to work our way up column 1 of the periodic table putting the reactive metals in water where they flamed, fizzed and shot around the surface of the water. All very well and good until an over-large chunk of potassium (also soft, silvery and stored in oil) cracked the basin. We liked things that made smells or fireworks

[James G]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

... was to work our way up column 1 of the periodic table ...

I think you mean down, reactivity increases as you move down column 1.

[lioness]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Which is why I said found in common salt. Pure sodium is a soft, silvery metal that's highly reactive and stored in pelleted form in oil. One of our favourite end of term wind-downs (with only the teacher handling the substances) was to work our way up column 1 of the periodic table putting the reactive metals in water where they flamed, fizzed and shot around the surface of the water. All very well and good until an over-large chunk of potassium (also soft, silvery and stored in oil) cracked the basin. We liked things that made smells or fireworks

In high school, one student teacher who was teaching a chemistry unit in my biology class managed to set off the fire alarm when we asked what would happen if the water was warm. The sodium had a nice flame, and the smoke is what triggered the alarm.

[Floater]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Lithium - isn't this prescribed in compounds for mental conditions?

It so is. It's given bipolar patients when they are up. A person I know said that it really helped him down, but he didn't like the side effects so he had stopped taking it.

[Eddylizard]

I'm not sure about the implementation date, but this page from the DEA indicates that iodine crystals and iodine solutions over 2.2% have been, or are propesed to be added to the schedule of controlled substances.

More here.

I don't know what the solution strength for medical iodine is, if it's less than 2.2% one ought to still be able to obtain it.

[stalker]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

I don't know what the solution strength for medical iodine is, if it's less than 2.2% one ought to still be able to obtain it.

I have some, prescribed to me in France for treatment of a head wound. I'll have a look when I get home, but I think the strength was more than that.
The Aussie article mentions it's to combat drug manufacture, but the US one doesn't. I hope it's not due to anything dangerous too, I was plastering the stuff on my forehead for about a month!

[Hot Toast]

Originally Posted by TrekkerScout

There is some validity to that story if you live in Australia.

I was wondering why I hadn't heard that, until I read the article. It seems that it will be banned in Victoria, not the whole of Australia. However I am sure that more states will follow. If you believe the news ice is the new scourge of the nation.

So now back to the stories of throwing group 1 elements into water.....

[jw]

All citizens in Ireland were sent a packet of 6 iodine tablets in the event of a nuclear emergency by our Dept of Health, I think about the year 2000.
I've just looked at my (still sealed) packet which has an expiry date of March '05.
I seem to remember the Government promising to send us on a replacement pack, or maybe we were meant to collect it from a pharmacy.
Either way, would this have been of any use?
In relation to the OP, iodine is not being made illegal here.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Hot Toast

So now back to the stories of throwing group 1 elements into water.....

I've never really grown out of that, I just lost access to group 1 elements when I left school.

Adding conc H2SO4 to a strong sugar solution in a beaker was also fun - you got a rod of carbon shoot up out of the beaker. I could do that one at home as dad's hobbies meant he had conc H2SO4 in the locked chemical cabinet in the garage (I always did this one with parental supervision, even in my late teens).

[Tarquin Farquart]

I like to claim the only reason I did A-level chemistry was so I could get to play with sodium, concentrated acids and the like myself rather than watch behind a screen.