For years clinical laboratories have been conducting routine quantitative analyses on hormones (steroid and peptide), vitamins, drugs, enzymes, and a variety of other relatively small molecules in physiological fluids. Many of these test methods require the use of organic solvents as a means of separating the component to be analyzed from interferring substances. The separating techniques are either extraction of the component into an organic phase or chromatography (thin layer or column) of the substance from its interferrants utilizing organic solvents.
In a relatively large number of tests the solvents used are petroleum-related; such as, petane, hexane, isooctane, benzene, petroleum-related; such as, petane, hexane, isooctane, benzene, toluene, and xylene. For reasons of safety, many laboratories take the extractant to dryness in a distillation apparatus recovering the solvent in a separate vessel. Thus, under no circumstances can explosive combinations of air and vapors build up in the fume hood. From thin layer and column chromatography excess solvents are recovered from trays and columns. Therefore, as the laboratory conducts these routine analyses on a daily or weekly basis, waste solvents tend to accumulate and the problem becomes one of disposal of these fluids. Since these organic compounds are an intrinsic part of gasoline, it was summarized that quite possibly these solvents could be recovered and blended into a fuel very similar, if not identical to it. Thus, a recovery program was initiated in our laboratories from those clinical test program was initiated in our laboratories from those clinical test methods utilizing petroleum-type solvents. The wastes were placed in five-gallon metal containers and stored in cabinets specifically designed for the storage of flammable organic fluids.
