[Royal Society of Chemistry] Know your poison: the festival chemical safety net

Imagine that you, like millions of people in the UK each year, are at a music festival. You emerge from your muddy tent into music, sunshine and fun – including the temptations of alcohol and even illegal drugs. But such temptations can turn the fun to tragedy, as happened in the case of 18-year-old Christian Pay at the Kendal Calling festival in Cumbria. Like most users, he was unaware of exactly what was in what he thought were ecstasy pills – and what they contained killed him.

Risks like this motivated chemist Guy Jones to exploit the expertise gained from his weekday job working for an analytical equipment supplier. For years, at weekends, he has been volunteering to help...

Read the full article here.