Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wpx84 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-22T05:40:43.318Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Use and Disposal of Uranyl Acetate in the Electron Microscope Laboratory: Glow in the Dark or Walk in the Park?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Randy Tindall
Randy Tindall*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
*
Tindallr@missouri.edu

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Let's face it—uranyl acetate is the perennial bad boy of chemicals, at least from the standpoint of disposal. A necessary evil in the electron microscopy laboratory, it presents a quandary for those trying to comply with hazardous materials regulalions, an effort complicated by its nominal radioactivity. Disposal costs of radioactive materials can be daunting. A past posting to the Microscopy Society of America listserver gave an estimate of US$7000 per liter and local follow up indicated that, although probably high, that may not be an unreasonable figure. In these times of diminished subsidies and expectations of increased cost recovery by academic service facilities like ours, this is of paramount concern.

The Electron Microscopy Core Facility at the University of Missouri-Columbia follows guidelines issued by our campus Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) office regarding hazardous materials and their disposal.

Type
Research Article
Information
Microscopy Today , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , May 2004 , pp. 40 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2004

References

(1)Personal communication: Roger Giles, Manager of Hazardous Materials-Field Operations, Environmental Health and Safety, University orMissouri, Columbia, Missouri.Google Scholar
(2)Public Health Statement for Uranium. Summary Chapter of the lexicological Profile for Uranium. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia. Sepl. 1999.Google Scholar
(3)Uranium. In: Water Quality and Health Bureau. Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety. Health Canada. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. October, 1999, (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecssesc/water/publications/uranium/chapter4,htm) Google Scholar
(4) Berlin, M. and Rudell B., Uranium. In: Handbook on the toxicology of metals. 2nd edition. Griberg, L., Nordberg, G.F. and Vouk, V.B. (eds). Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam. Pp. 623–637 (1986).Google Scholar
(5) Leggett, R.W. The behaviour and chemical toxicity of U in the kidney: a reassessment. Health Phys., 57(3): 365–383 (1989).Google Scholar
(6) Wrenn, M.E., Durbin, P.W., Howard, B., Lipsztein, J., J., Rundo, Still, E.T., and Willis, D.L.. Metabolism of ingested U and Ra. Health Phys., 48(5): 601–633 (1985).Google Scholar
(7) Tracy, B.L. and Limson Zamora, M. Absorbed fraction of uranium in humans. Poster presentation, 39th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society, San Francisco, CA, June 26-30 (1994). Cited in “Uranium.” Water Quality and Health Bureau. Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety. Health Canada. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. October, 1939.Google Scholar
(8) J.L., Domingo, Llobet, J.M., Tomas, J.M., and Corbella, J. Acule toxicity of uranium in rats and mice. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol., 39; 168–174 (1987).Google Scholar