Laboratory Waste Minimization

Peter C. Ashbrook (left) is the Director of Environmental Health and Safety, at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and Todd A. Houts (right) is Assistant Head of Chemical Safety and Waste Management at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign.

Laboratory waste a national scale

P art of our motivation in writing this column is to publicize strategies and methods for pollution prevention in

laboratories. Our columns have not consid- ered environmental impacts on a scale larger than the institution. Recently, several national groups have observed trends indicating that funding for biomedical research in the United States may possibly double over the next five years. These groups are concerned about the impacts such funding increases will have on infrastructure, energy use, and waste produc- tion. This column describes how these groups propose to address the chemical waste com- ponent of these issues.

CONVENERS

Four organizations have taken it upon them- selves to convene a conference entitled “Lead- ership Conference: Biomedical Research and the Environment.” These groups are the Na- tional Association of Physicians for the Envi- ronment (NAPE), the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers, the National In- stitute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Environmental Protection Agency. NAPE has taken the leadership in organizing the conference, which will be held November 1-2, 1999, at the Natcher Center on the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland. As of mid-May, 39 organizations were cosponsoring the conference.

ISSUES

Some of the questions to be addressed at this conference include:

. How can the biomedical research leadership and its business, healthcarc, and environ- ment colleagues develop a national program of pollution prevention to utilize this wel- come rapid growth to promote stewardship and responsibility for the environment as an integral part of the disease prevention and healing mission?

. How can a system of environmentally sound raw material to final disposal of chemicals be created?

. How can such activities have spin-off uses

minimization on

for other healthcare and scientific research activities?

GOAL

The conference has the goal of developing a national information and education program, and a clearinghouse to disseminate “best prac- tices” for an environmentally sound biomedi- cal research enterprise.

Waste minimization and management are specific topics to be addressed at this confer- ence. These issues will be familiar to our read- ers. A committee on minimization has been established to address types and volumes of biomedical research waste (solid, chemical, medical pathological, radioactive, and multi- hazardous), and how these wastes will be managed with an emphasis on full-cycle envi- ronmental costs. Included in this discussion will be minimization of use, alternative mate- rials, best practices in education, and training of staff for appropriate use and disposal. The committee will also look at how laws and reg- ulations may bear on these issues.

More specifically, the minimization commit- tee intends to provide information on chemi- cal waste characteristics, on-site management, employee training, sewer disposal, and waste treatment. Although it is early in the process, it appears that mercury will be one target for minimization.

Although laboratory chemical waste mini- mization is only one of many issues to be addressed by the Leadership Conference, we believe that it will provide an excellent de- scription of the state of the art of laboratory waste minimization and will significantly af- fect national policies and programs related to laboratory waste minimization. Conference committees will prepare a substantial report about the issues and opportunities. In addi- tion, the conference proceedings, which will include a mix of poster presentations and workshop discussion groups, will also be pub- lished. Plans are being made to develop an internet-based clearinghouse for laboratory pollution prevention practices and opportuni- ties.

For more information about the conference, visit the web site at: http://www.napenet.org/ con99com.html.

107409098/99/$20.00 0 Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society 13 PII SlO74-999098(99)00029-5 Published by Elsevier Science Inc.