The Year Of The Rat

Better Mousetraps For  Bomb-throwing Islamarchists

Things are all too quiet on the War On Terror's Eastern Front .

Two years have passed since China  confiscated 105 tons of "Dushuqiang", a scarily toxic, and hence enormously popular rural rat poison introduced in 1990, but banned after  the 9-11anthrax scare. About 95 percent of the total sales of "Dushuqiang" occured in  Henan,  Anhui and Hubei. The almost tasteless and odorless white powder has figured in mass murders ( one with 38 victims ) and lethal accidents in all three provinces.

This is a vastly more toxic and credible agent of  One Very Bad Adamantane  chemical terrorism than arsenic or cyanide. It's a lot simpler to manufacture than its Geneva nomenclature name suggests--

2,6-Dithia-1,3,5,7-tetrazatricyclo[3.3.1.1(sup3,7)]decane-2,2,6,6 tetroxide

and just five milligrams can kill a man. The adamantane derivative is two orders of magnitude more lethal than Agatha Christie's favorite chemicals,  because Its small molecules' diamond-like structural core bristles with sulfur-nitrogen bonds that render it profoundly cytotoxic. The 250 tons authorities have so far seized are enough to kill every man , woman, child, cat, dog, horse, pig , cow and chicken on the planet, with enough left over to whack weasels and decimate the rat population along with the rest of the Chinese zodiac.

Though Du Qinglin, China's Minister of Agriculture has declared that the suppression of the illegal  poison has "basically reached its target" , it's unclear if destroying 41 Dushuqiang factories has put and end to bootleg production, for proven demand exists among 800,000,000 Chinese living on the land, 100 million of whom are Muslims in provinces bordering  Afghanistan , Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and sundry other 'Stans.

China's Ministry of Health says the 2005 campaign reduced Dushuqiang accidents, victims and deaths by  75% over the previous year, but local public security departments had been dealing with thousands of cases , and there have been more murders by rat poison since. Even the claimed success rate would leave tons unaccounted for.

Since enterprising suicide bombers have already tried lacing their gadgets with less lethal rodenticides, China's neighbors, and others, may be living in interesting times come 2008, the next Year Of The Rat.

  

Comments

[Sharpshooter]

"The 250 tons authorities have so far seized are enough to kill every man ,woman, child, cat, dog, horse, pig and cow on the planet, with plenty left to whack weasels and decimate the rat population."

{ROFL} There goes my keyboard

[Robert Speirs]

I do hope you're not giving the Muslims ideas. Bad ones.

[Henry Barth]

Agatha CHRISTIE not Christy.

...just five milligrams can kill a man. The adamantane derivative is two orders of magnitude more lethal than Agatha Christy's favorite chemicals...