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Title: Photolytic method for destruction of dioxins in liquid laboratory waste and identification of the photoproducts from 2,3,7,8-TCDD

Journal Article · · Environmental Science and Technology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/es990078j· OSTI ID:20014623

Analytical and other research laboratories that generate small volumes of dioxin-containing wastes have no convenient method for their disposal. The authors have used ultraviolet photolysis with a low-pressure mercury lamp to destroy dioxin-like compounds, both as individual congeners and in actual waste analytical samples, down to nondetect levels. Photolysis promises to be an efficient, safe, and inexpensive method for on-site treatment of liquid laboratory wastes that are contaminated by dioxin-like compounds, allowing the treated materials to be discarded as regular organic solvent waste. Experiments with 1,6-[{sup 3}H]-2,3,7,8-TCDD revealed that the principal photolytic pathway involves cleavage of C-O bonds rather than C-Cl bonds, giving chlorinated hydroxydiphenyl ethers as the initial products and accounting for the low material balances of reductive dechlorination products previously found upon photolysis of PCDDs. The photolysis products from 2,3,7,8-TCDD do not bind to either the Ah receptor or the estrogen receptor in vitro, making it unlikely that the products from UV treatment of PCDD/PCDF in laboratory waste will show either Ah or estrogen receptor-mediated toxicological effects.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Guelph, Ontario (CA)
OSTI ID:
20014623
Journal Information:
Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 34, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: 1 Jan 2000; ISSN 0013-936X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English