Program now enters maintenance and education phase

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas’ chemical hygiene program has successfully rounded up and disposed of more than 25 tons of outdated chemicals in its laboratories since January and is now entering a maintenance and education phase.

"The response to our program has been very good," said Miriam Lonon, manager for UA Environmental Health and Safety. "We’ve successfully identified and disposed of outdated chemical waste that has been on the shelves far past its period of usefulness."

In addition to quarterly disposal of hazardous waste already in place at the University, the chemical hygiene program was implemented last fall as an concerted effort to rid University shelves of potentially unstable chemical compounds. "This general clean-up has resulted in a substantial increase in the amount of materials disposed of in our quarterly pick-ups as well as the necessity for making special arrangements for the disposal of materials like explosives and toxic gases," Lonon said.

The first identification and destruction of a chemical called picric acid took place last October. Since that time, various chemicals in solid, liquid and gas form have been identified and removed from campus for disposal. The 25 tons includes the weight of the packaging materials.

Universities by nature accumulate chemical compounds for any of a number of reasons, according to Lonon. Often the chemicals are bought in bulk because they may be less expensive in large quantities. However, the amount saved by buying in bulk may be more than offset by the cost of disposing of the excess. Thus making purchases in the smallest quantities needed is encouraged, according to Lonan. Researchers retire or leave the University and leave chemicals behind that often go unused. Some chemicals have a limited shelf-life and become unstable or decompose altogether over time.

The spring and summer months have served as a final push for UA departments to take inventory and report chemical materials for possible discard. "We’ve undergone a last big push to identify as much chemical waste as possible and will now enter a maintenance mode in which we will continue to encourage smaller inventories in the university’s laboratories, provide ongoing assistance in disposing of outdated chemicals and also offer training in chemical hygiene for any department that wants it," Lonon said.

"It’s good to conduct inventories at least every two years," Lonon said. "We’ve had a number of departments request additional training in chemical hygiene as well as walk-throughs of their facilities so that we might make suggestions on how their chemicals might be stored better.

"Although this phase of the program has been very successful, we expect that some laboratories and storerooms on campus still contain outdated and unneeded chemicals, including some that may be highly reactive," Lonon said. ""Although this phase of the program has been very successful, we expect that some laboratories and storerooms on campus still contain outdated and unneeded chemicals, including some that may be highly reactive," Lonon said. We will continue to encourage all laboratories to check their chemical inventories and notify EH&S if there are doubts about the age, identity, or condition of a substance, or if there are items marked for disposal."

We will continue to encourage all laboratories to check their chemical inventories and notify EH&S if there are doubts about the age, identity, or condition of a substance, or if there are items marked for disposal."

The cost of the program since January has been about $100,000. This includes the cost of packaging the materials for disposal and payment to contractors that specialize in such disposal.

The University, with the assistance of local authorities, has conducted two detonations of the potentially explosive picric acid since October. Most recently, Safety-Kleen of Louisiana was contracted to dispose of all the potentially explosive compounds discovered in the round-up. As these materials were turned in, they were stored in a safe location until the pick-up. Most other chemicals are regularly picked up by another company that specializes in such disposal, but that does not handle potentially explosive materials.

"Actually, we’ve saved money by utilizing our experts in the UA Physical Plant Environmental Compliance Shop who have greatly assisted the program by packing these materials for pickup and shipment by the disposal contractor," Lonon said. "We’ve saved about 50 percent on labor costs for what amounts to about 600 man-hours.

"We’ve also received great help in identifying chemicals from Dr. Bill Durham of the chemistry department," Lonon said. "It is much less expensive to dispose of chemicals if you know what they are. So we’ve made every effort to do identify them."

Although the program has focused on helping research departments clear their shelves of outdated chemicals, other departments also have participated. Things such as solvents, batteries, and oil necessitate ongoing chemical hygiene as well.

There will continue to be regularly scheduled pickups and disposal of hazardous waste materials from the campus.

# # # #