Chemicals Used for Illegal Purposes helps hazmat professionals and others determine if chemicals at a suspicious site could be used to make illegal substances such as drugs, explosives, pyrotechnics, nerve agents, and other toxins. It profiles dangerous chemicals, covering their appearance, smell, incompatibilities, and identification tests. It features diagrams to assist responders in identifying illegal laboratories. This is a hands-on reference for crime scene responders, policemen, firemen, bomb squad members, drug enforcement officials, and others who need to be able to identify potentially hazardous materials and react quickly and appropriately.

ROBERT TURKINGTON is the creator of the HazCat® Chemical Identification System, which has been used in at least five countries and in Antarctica for the identification of spilled or abandoned chemicals. He presently teaches classes in observational qualitative analysis, recognizing chemical weapons manufacturing, and atmospheric monitoring to federal agencies, including the EPA and the Army. Mr. Turkington was formerly the Senior Industrial Hygienist in charge of the Emergency Risk Assessment Unit, the Carcinogen Control Unit, and the Employee Right to Know Unit for the State of California, and on the faculty of the University of California Extension, teaching classes in 1910.12 and SW-846. He was the chief industrial hygienist for the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, which at that time was the largest shipyard on the West coast of California. He has extensive experience identifying chemicals at Superfund sites.