Re: propidium iodide waste disposal

From: Joeri Aerts (joeri.aerts@uz.kuleuven.ac.be)
Date: Mon Aug 14 2000 - 09:18:52 EST


At 11:22 11/08/2000 +0100, you wrote:
>
>Dear Fellow Flowers, especially UK ones,
>how do you dispose of your waste when contaminated with propidium iodide? Is
>there anybody that can recommend protocols or treatments to allow the
>filtered buffer to be safely disposed of without environmental risk?
>Thanks again for your help as usual, and I'll post a summary of the replays.
>
>Cheers, Mara
>

Several standard method for removal of ethidium bromide toxicity  have been
described in the classic 'Molecular Cloning' by Sambrook et al.. (pp.
E.8-E.9).  Since PI and EB have very similar structures I suppose these
methods apply to both.
The possibilities are:
A. for concentrated solutions:	1. use of nitrite in acid solution
				2. to use permanganate in acid solution
(both methods are based on  oxidation of the planar aromatic rings
responsible for DNA intercalation)

B. for diluted solutions:		Use absorbent (e.g. activated charcoal) to
remove the EtBr from the solution

Cheers,

Joeri


-------------------------------------
Joeri Aerts

Experimentele Laboratoriumgeneeskunde
Laboratoriumgeneeskunde (Hematologie)

CDG 7e VD - Gasthuisberg
Herestraat 49
B-3000 Leuven
BELGIUM

tel.:	+32-16347012
fax.:	+32-16347042
e-mail: joeri.aerts@uz.kuleuven.ac.be
-------------------------------------



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Mar 10 2001 - 19:31:29 EST