The latest fear induced casualty is kids chemistry sets. Many of the chemicals that used to come in chemistry sets are now considered too dangerous to sell.
PZ Meyers has an excellent entry on his blog about this. He says (among other things):
There was stuff in there that would burn, or blow up, or stain the furniture irreparably, or kill someone…that was the fun and the thrill of it all. I had one, although I quickly moved on to more ghoulish occupations (most of the boys I knew could be separated into several tracks: the ones fascinated with road kill, and the ones making homemade explosives, and the ones with the soldering irons);
I was one of the kids with the soldering iron and I still tinker with electronics (but not as much as I’d like to.)
I’d like to get my kids interested in science, but it’s hard to find good, dangerous, things to get them.
