GETTING RID OF EtBr

[Wolfgang Schechinger]

gbga13 at udcf.gla.ac.uk (B.L.Cohen) wrote:
>In article <3v5rvf$jro at sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>, Wolfgang Schechinger
><u7k0201 at sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de> wrote:
>
>> Hmm. This point of interest comes up again and again...
>> If you have the facility of bringig it to a suitable incinerator (infectious waste e.g.) do 
>> this. Or use at least 1M sodium hydroxide. This will destroy it. (You can measure this by 
>
>Can you please provide a reference to the use of alkali to detoxify EtBr? 
>It is a suggestion that I have not seen before and might be useful.
>
>But can any chemists indicate what the products might be?  
>
>Remember that the product of hypochlorite treatment of EtBr is mutagenic in
>the Ames test _without_ microsomal activation and may therefore be a more
>potent mutagen in vivo (mammals) that the unaltered compound (even though
>there may be very little of it).

Sorry, but I cannot give you a reference. If we have small amounts of EtBr in a solution, we 
mix it with NaOH and put it to our toxic waste. Gelc etc. we do put into a bag that goes to 
incineration.
-- 
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Wolfgang Schechinger
Institute for Diabetes Reserch 
Koelner Platz 1
80804 Munich
Germany 
Phone +49 (89) 30 79 31 24
Fax   +49 (89) 30 81 733
email u7k0201 at sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de

(Standard disclaimer applies)
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