From: "Brooks, Walter" <skoorb62**At_Symbol_Here**COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Compounds washed down the drain
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:15:34 -0700
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 53A085C6.3010606**At_Symbol_Here**comcast.net
In-Reply-To <6E3EAA50-A750-4230-BFBB-D0A74850BE4A**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org>


To whom ever:  When a new wing of one of our local high schools was being built the architecht included a waste collection tank from the science wing.  I would suggest that you look at local law for your requirements to control waste materials from going into the sewage treatment plant.  The simplest solution is to have a hazardous waste company pump your holding tank on a regular basis so that the residual chemicals can be removed.  For a while there was some work discussed in CEN about the total oxidation of waste waters by use of diamines, iron and hydrogen peroxide.  The heavy metals become sludge that can be filtered out.  The carbon compounds are total converted to carbon dioxide, halogens are converted salts, etc. 

Best of luck getting any of these suggestions implemented.  There is a simple engineering principle you may want to consider.  Draw a line around your laboratory in a virtual sense and then figure out how to deal with all the inputs and outputs.  The only acceptable outputs are water, carbon dioxide (and not very much of that) anything else has to be trapped, contained and sent to hazardous waste handling.

Advice is cheap but doing something significant is often quite difficult

On 6/17/2014 9:09 AM, Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety wrote:
From: Sylvia Tarin Brousseau <sock5108**At_Symbol_Here**aol.com>

I am a drug chemist for DOJ. We routinely use mortars, pestles, etc. in the course of our analysis. Is there a sink filter (carbon?) to catch residual compounds being washed down the drain? We do have a neutralization tank that does some filtering. We have chemists that are worried about drugs (pharm and otherwise) appearing in the food chain due to the waste water. Any insight appreciated.


-- 
Walter Brooks,  Ph.D. organic chemist, Florida State U. 1971 with 30 years of industrial experience.

Federal Way, WA 98023
skoorb62**At_Symbol_Here**comcast.net
253-941-3854  please leave a message if you call

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