From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Oct. 20, 1986:

Several residents of southeast Lawrence were upset about a recent chemical “frost” that had coated their property. Sharon Gunther, 114 Pinecone, had noticed a thick white frost on her car and her lawn on Saturday morning, but as the day wore on and the temperatures climbed into the 70s, the coating didn’t melt. When called, the police told her that they didn’t know what it was, but “just to wash it off,” said Gunther. The chemical apparently had been discharged from the Farmland Industries fertilizer plant. Don Clark, plant superintendent, said that it was probably a “routine and harmless” discharge of ammonium nitrate. According to the Poison Control Center at the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, the substance was “probably not life-threatening,” but could cause nausea or headache if eaten by small children, and breathing difficulties or coughing if inhaled. Clark insisted that the plant was in compliance with state guidelines and that “if it was harmful, it would burn up all the grass around the plant…. We do not know of any problems. All they reported were dirty cars and dirty mailboxes.”