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Safety

Fertilizer Producer Acts On U.S. Concerns

by Glenn Hess
March 4, 2013 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 91, Issue 9

A Pentagon official says a Pakistani company is taking new steps to address U.S. security concerns that the firm’s fertilizer is being smuggled into Afghanistan for use in improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero says Fatima Group has suspended sales of calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer products in two Pakistani provinces that border Afghanistan. Barbero, head of the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization, notes that Fatima Group has also agreed to work on a reformulated product that renders calcium ammonium nitrate “less explosive,” thereby diminishing its effectiveness in IEDs. The company will work with the U.S. military to test and validate the new formulation, Barbero adds. In December, he told a congressional committee that Fatima Group had been less than cooperative with U.S. efforts to reduce IED threats in Afghanistan. Progress on a fertilizer project that Fatima Group has in the works in Indiana is on hold pending resolution of these security issues.

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