In the 1930s, New Zealand farmers had exploding ... pants

At the beginning of the 20th century, the lush green meadows of New Zealand were filled with invasive plant species – Jacoby. This plant is dangerous for living creatures since it contains a large number of alkaloids affect the liver and nervous system.

For New Zealand's growing agricultural industry, this was a real disaster – grazing animals massively poisoned and died. To defeat the enemy, the farmers suggested the government purchase sodium chlorate for later use as an herbicide.

Of course it worked – plants treated with sodium chlorate died. But everyone forgot to take into account that sodium chlorate, in combination with any other organic substances, forms an explosive flammable compound.

After cultivating the soil with sodium chlorate diluted in water, the work suit was completely saturated with chemical fumes. Coming home a farmer washed the clothes up, but it couldn’t help in any way because by this time sodium chlorate had formed dangerous compounds with natural tissue. Farmer’s clothing (mostly just pants in the hot climate of New Zealand, workers took off their shirts while working in the fields) became a time bomb.

Gradually, after the start of the use of sodium chlorate, the country was filled with rumors of exploding and flammable pants. Someone was lucky since his pants ignited in the sun during drying, someone turned out to be less successful – clothes caught fire right on a person while riding a horse due to friction pants against the saddle, and for someone, the use of sodium chlorate completely ended in tragedy – the clothes exploded at his home because of accidentally hitting a candle, and the unfortunate did not have time to take off the blazing fabric.

When dozens of such cases were counted, warnings about the dangers of using sodium chlorate appeared in the local press. But there was nowhere to go: the weed was attacking, and the herbicide had already been purchased on an industrial scale and lay in warehouses. So, New Zealand farmers continued to use sodium chlorate with the risk for their asses until in the late 1930s this compound was completely banned for use in agriculture.