Man's Home Lab confiscated for "doing science in a residential area"
blog.makezine.com
blog.makezine.com
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.
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.
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.
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.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/the_war_on_the...
If you consider facts from the original article, you might realize that authorities were in fact 100% right. They discovered that some guy was running effectively a chemical lab in a residential area. Was he disposing the waste correctly ? Did he have an exhaust system in place ? Was he complying with fire safety regulations ? Etc, etc.. Zoning bylaws exist for a reason, and this is a textbook emergency situation. So they did respond appropriately - they evacuated the guy and cleaned up the place. Also note how he was asked to stay in the hotel, not arrested or prosecuted.
Here's the original article for a reference - http://www.telegram.com/article/20080809/NEWS/808090323/1008...
> no more dangerous than typical household cleaning products.
Should all household cleaning products be banned for places without industrial grade ventilation systems too? Zoning bylaws exist because their is not sufficient proven danger for these regulations to exist as State or Federal laws.
Consider the context. An usually large amount of potentially dangerous chemicals in a residential area is an emergency situation. They responded accordingly - eliminated potential danger first, analyzed it second.
And before you downmod me again, imagine yourself living next door to this "chemist" or sharing a graywater supply with him. Then ask yourself if you still think authorities were wrong in their "overreaction".
What seems like "too many" to someone who isn't involved with hobbyist chemistry (or whatever he's involved with) is completely unimportant. You show me a law on the books that limits your hobbies and if you find a law that fits that and is reasonable, I'd agree with you.
If I was an EE hobbyist and built a small tesla coil (which many people do), I wouldn't want people living next door giving me the looks and trying to shut me down because it doesn't look kosher to /them/.
They didn't respond to any chemical-related threats, or a chemical fire, nor did he have a criminal record, so I'd disagree completely with you that there's any concern for worry.
I love it how people take it upon themselves to decide what is acceptable and what isn't.
I know folks who have about that in canned food. Are they a danger?
In my imagination I'm not peering through his basement window going "Oh no, things I don't understand and which therefore they must be 'potentially dangerous'! This an emergency!"
A couple of posts earlier you said this is _not_ an example of "war on the unexpected", now you argue that because people in charge say "wtf?" when they hear what he's doing, they should shut him down just in case - in the interests of public safety.
Which is exactly the point of the "war on the unexpected" discussion.
"Consider the context. An usually large amount of potentially dangerous chemicals in a residential area is an emergency situation."
No, it's not. A swimming pool is an unusually large amount of potentially dangerous chemical - someone could die of asphyxiation if they accidentally inhaled even a very small fraction of it! Ban DiHydrogen Monoxide! Fearmongering for everyone!
What I understand is that if you use those products without having a single idea of what they are made of because you have a limited scientific understanding then you are ok.
However if you are educated and dare to know what you are doing then using those same products makes you a danger to society and you most be stop.
The authorities might have been working within the law, but the law itself is all wrong. There has to be a way to encourage garage science, not make it more difficult.
I consider myself a "garage scientist" these days. The garage just happens to be my laptop and a set of virtual servers.
That is a little hard to believe. The rate of scientific progress is, if anything, continuing to increase. As a society, we are increasingly dependent on science and technology. Science education has long been a priority of the educational systems in most first world countries (for better or worse). And as for "science at home", it is pretty hard to argue that it's under attack, a single anecdote about someone in Massachusetts notwithstanding.
(Although I know plenty of adults who might spend their holidays doing garage science, if it weren't for the fact that they already get paid to do it as a day job.)
Right, because that's an entirely valid reason for a search and seizure. The guy should give the ACLU a call. This case is right up their alley.
Was "doing science in a residential area" an actual quote? If not, why is it in quote marks?
"Pamela A. Wilderman, Marlboro’s code enforcement officer, said Mr. Deeb was doing scientific research and development in a residential area, which is a violation of zoning laws."
I'm sure that if we transplanted all the scientists and engineers in MA to any other state we'd see at least the same number of incidents like this.
Honestly, I'd guess the article's kind of regulation or enforcement is probably more correlated with population density than anything else. The more packed in people get the more concerned everyone is about someone mucking up the finely tuned dance.
In a town where people call the cops on their neighbors for not pruning their hedges, I can totally see the SWAT team raiding a guy's house for doing chemistry experiments in the basement.