Does fertilizer spell trouble?

Editor;
There were 2 items of interest on Thaivisa.com today. The first was a warning of possible attacks by Islamic extremists on certain locations in Thailand, mainly targeting US & UK premises.
The second was an unrelated article about the dumping of about 20,000 empty fertilizer bags. They have washed ashore on various beaches around Rayong, about 70kms from the major tourist city of Pattaya. There were several comments about this, mostly with regard to mess left on the beaches but nobody mentioned the fact that if this fertilizer was ammonium nitrate, it can be used to make bombs.
I understand that Thailand has many large agricultural areas & maybe a farmer accidentally put these empty bags in the sea & if the fertilizer isn’t ammonium nitrate, then I’ll accept the fact that I’ve been barking up the wrong tree. However, I think it would be a good idea if the police check these bags out & try to ascertain whether the purchaser was indeed a farmer or a man with a beard & a towel on his head?
Regards,
Des Gillet

Should be done weekly

Editor;
Re: 500 pluck trash for International Coastal Cleanup Day (PM Friday, 26 September 2014) - Well done for this work, but really this should be done on a weekly basis by salaried Pattaya workers. They seem to think that cleaning the beach 2 or 3 times a year is something to be congratulated?
Paul Davies

Commend city for working on 2nd Road

Editor;
Re: Expats complain about traffic, but police say crackdown working (PM Friday, 26 September 2014) - I, who rarely find anything of value to commend Pattaya administration for, noticed, just yesterday they are scraping off some of the washboard surfacing 2nd Rd and applaud them. I hope this accolade is not premature and they actually finish the job! Now, if they made 2nd a 2-way street, much of the other traffic problems would be minimized.
Don Aleman

Plastic bags - action required

Editor;
Dear mayor, please help. Your beautiful country is a plastic dumping ground. Take a boat out into Jomtien Bay and see the plastic waste carpet. We need action,
The Republic of Ireland introduced a charge of 15 euro cents (12p, 20 US cents) per bag in March 2002, which led to a 95% reduction in plastic bag litter. Within a year, 90% of shoppers were using long-life bags.
Every year 800,000 tonnes of so-called single-use plastic bags are used in the European Union - the average EU citizen used 191 of them in 2010, the Commission says, and only 6% were recycled.
More than four billion bags are thrown away each year.
“The impact of this plastic waste can be seen littering our landscape, threatening our wildlife and accumulating as ‘plastic soup’ in the Pacific Ocean, which may cover more than 15,000,000 sq km,” says Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik.
Recent research into chemical additives in plastic have been linked to problems associated with human health, and this is where there is an issue with plastic particles. Plastic is breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces and entering the food chain and releasing chemicals into the fish that eat them (Zarfl & Matthies, 2010). These particles are ingested by fish and retained within their digestive system, slowly releasing chemicals into their bodies. Furthermore research has shown that the plastic surface of these particles is absorbing chemicals from the surrounding water (Kosier, 2010). Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are being found in concentrations on marine plastics in several orders of magnitude higher than they are free in the water (Thompson, 2010). The same POPs have been associated with numerous detrimental health conditions.
Matt Jomtien

Does fertilizer spell trouble?

Should be done weekly

Commend city for working on 2nd Road

Plastic bags - action required