jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) (06/27/91)
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) There have been a few news items recently about souvenir sand brought back from the Persian Gulf war zone. There was much ado about how official souvenir sand, microwave-sterilized, was OK, but one couldn't just go out and scoop up a jarful and bring it back. Which leads to a couple of questions: Is this a reasonable precaution against a real threat, or just random officiousness? And if the threat is real, what precautions are being taken with all that military hardware that's presumably coming back? This is an especially close-to-home subject for Californians. We're big on agricultural checkpoints at the state line (though other states seem to regard us as a net source of bugs). But this is getting thin on sci.military content, so shall we take it to sci.environment? --Joe "Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"