Transitioning to Safer Chemicals in Academic Research Laboratories: Lessons Learned at the University of Washington

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• 作者：Jennifer Krenz MS ; MPH ; Nancy Simcox MS ; Jill Stoddard Tepe ; Christopher D Simpson PhD ; MSc
• 刊名：ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：July 5, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：4
• 期：7
• 页码：4021-4028
• 全文大小：257K
• 年卷期：0
• ISSN：2168-0485

文摘

Chemicals are an integral component of laboratory activities in academia but minimizing hazards and environmental impacts of chemicals is challenging. This paper describes how laboratories in University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (UW DEOHS) partnered with the UW Green Laboratory Program to explore approaches for assisting laboratories to adopt green chemistry principles and select safer chemicals. Chemical inventories, purchasing records, and hazardous waste data were used to quantitate chemical use in DEOHS. Characterizing chemical use based on the data sources provided the project team with a summary of the high volume chemicals used by departmental laboratories. As a way to target chemicals that are highly hazardous but not used in large masses/volumes, laboratory managers were asked about highly hazardous or toxic chemicals they used. Two chemicals were selected for alternatives assessments and developed into case studies that represent different barriers that laboratories face in their efforts to transition to greener and safer chemicals. This project provided a unique opportunity to survey chemicals used by a set of laboratories with diverse research topics and to assess the practicality of transitioning to safer and greener chemicals in laboratory research using case studies.