The Ammonium Nitrate Materials (High Nitrogen Content) Safety Regulations 2003

Overview

These Regulations, which extend to Great Britain, implement article 7 of Council Directive 80/876/EEC in providing for checks to be carried out by the enforcing authority to establish that any ammonium nitrate based fertiliser manufactured chemically and containing more than 28% by weight of nitrogen, and described as an EC fertiliser, satisfies the detonation resistance test.

They also introduce equivalent safety controls for other ammonium nitrate material, where the material contains more than 28% nitrogen by weight derived from ammonium nitrate unless a person who has such material (that is not sold or to be used as a fertiliser) has been granted an exemption certificate by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

For reiteration, according to the regulations, official definitions of relevant ammonium nitrate materials are as such: 

• ammonium nitrate in solid form, where its nitrogen content is more than 28% of its weight;
• material in solid form, comprising a mixture of components, one of which is ammonium nitrate, in circumstances where the nitrogen content derived from ammonium nitrate is more than 28% of the material by weight; and 
• for so long as any material is treated as relevant ammonium nitrate material by virtue of regulation 9(3), that material, where the material has a total weight of five hundred kilogrammes or more, but does not include material which is a classified explosive).