Hazardous Substances

Treatment methods:

• Neutralizing Chromic acid with Sodium meta-bisulfide and Sodium bisulfate
• Oxidizing Sodium azide with Cerrous Ammonium Nitrate
• Destruction of Ehidium Bromide with Nitrous acid
• Benzoyl Peroxide reduction with a slow drip of Ammonia
• Destruction of -CN using bleach
• Diluting weak solutions down the drain
• Neutralization and diluting down the drain
• Landfillable items
• Water evaporation and condensation
• Distilling organics out of ground water - slight concentrations only

Reduction of Hazardous Substances: In order to minimize the amount of hazardous substances used and waste generated, many measures have been taken at UW.

An inventory of chemicals has been established at the University of Waterloo. If you have excess chemicals that may be useful to someone else they can be placed on this Redistributable Chemicals List. This "chemical library" of $2.00 chemicals has been established to decrease wasted materials and reduce the amount of newly bought chemicals.

Microscale chemistry techniques also reduce the amount of hazardous substances bought, used and wasted. The microscale labs were initiated in 1990 and $10,000.00 to $15,000.00 has been saved as a result. First year labs do not use these techniques; it is primarily the upper year organic chemistry labs which use microscale techniques.

Tracking Hazardous Substances: UW does not have a system to track and inventory hazardous chemicals from their purchase to their disposal. A system does exist to track who buys which chemicals and where it is being used. Records of the source and quantity of chemicals brought to the Hazardous Materials Handling Facility are also kept, yet there is no formal way of tracking the hazardous substances in the "in-between" stage.

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