The big question: "Why did they forbid permanganate?"

Earlier in almost every home in the medicine cabinet glass vials were kept, filled with small black crystals - potassium permanganate, in common parlance - of potassium permanganate. This salt is known in pharmacology for its antiseptic properties, as well as the ability to disinfect many poisons and purify water.

The range of application of potassium permanganate in home conditions has always been quite wide. She was treated with wounds, treated with ulcers, washed the stomach with poisoning, with the help of a weak solution, water was purified for drinking. And then suddenly in pharmacies stopped selling this useful drug. As it turned out, manganese is banned by the government of the Russian Federation since 2007. This year, Ukraine followed suit.

Why did they forbid potassium permanganate? More precisely, it was not banned, but strictly limited to the sale in pharmacies - now potassium permanganate can be bought only in state pharmacological enterprises and only if there is a doctor's prescription. It turned out that there are several reasons for this, and they are covered in the properties of matter.

The first reason why banned manganese, was its explosive capacity. This potassium salt has a specific property: when heated and even at room temperature, being a strong oxidant, it reacts to the action of reducing agents such as sucrose, tannin, glycerin, and the reaction is observed when interacting with active metal powders - calcium, magnesium, aluminum. In such chemical reactions self-heating and self-ignition of the substance (up to the explosion) occur. That's why they forbade the sale of potassium permanganate. The reason for everything is the fight against terrorist activities. That is, familiar from childhood potassium permanganate - one of the substances used in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices.

In Ukraine, a ban on the sale of this substance was introduced in the summer of 2013. Why have banned manganese in this country? It was classified as a precursor - that is, substances used in the artisanal manufacture of drugs. It turns out that potassium permanganate is one of the components for the manufacture of methamphetamine called "pervitin," or "screw." The composition of this drug also includes iodine, ephedrine, red phosphorus. However, it was manganese that underwent the persecution. In Russia, this reason was also one of the leading factors in the introduction of the substance described in the list of drugs banned for sale.

At the moment in the Russian Federation, the ban on the sale of potassium permanganate is gradually weakening. When reviewing the lists of prohibited substances, it was partially allowed for sale, but not more than 3 milligrams. Experts in the field of pharmacology consider this decision to be correct. But why did they forbid permanganate? The reasons given above are not obsolete at the moment, but in itself such a substance as potassium permanganate is already outdated. In its place new generations of antiseptics come to him, who do not engage in illegal manipulation.