Greeting to the list,

I walked into one of our research laboratories yesterday morning and I detected the odor of =E2-mercaptoethanol (=E2ME) and realized that the graduate student was running electrophoresis on the bench with =E2ME in the buffer and this caused a fugitive emission of =E2ME in the area. Not pleasant, but was it a hazard?

In labs that regularly uses in low concentrations for protein purification:

How do people who commonly use this chemical work with it during their everyday lab routines? Do you allow it to be used on the bench without a fume hood?

Are fugitive emissions a problem?

How hazardous is it to regularly inhale trances of =E2ME from e.g. the fridge or when people work with buffers on the lab bench?

Reading the literature, it might seem that low concentrations of =E2-mercaptoethanol (=E2ME) may be therapeutic.

Do you have any special requirements for discarding gloves or other material contaminated with =E2ME?

 

I know that the chemical is an irritant for the lungs if inhaled (mucus membranes), damaging if in contact with eyes, toxic if in contact with skin and to aquatic life and persists in the environment. However, with no OSHA PEL, NIOSH REL, or ACGIH TLV I witness labs that handle this chemical differently. Some strictly only open it in the fume-hood, have designed waste in the fume-hood for any pipette tips that touch =E2ME and always discard any protective gloves that they used while handling this chemical directly after use.

 

Other labs work with dilute concentrations for electrophoresis and in media for culture and don't care too much about discarding pippete tips in designated waste nor change gloves after use.

 

I do not want to create a hazard where there is not one. Reasonable lab safety people who overdo it tend to forget where the real hazards lie, and around them, also nobody learns about them.

 

I have made a SOP for =E2ME – among other things it mentions:

=B7         That these things are toxic to aquatic life

=B7         Should be managed as non-hazardous waste and containerized and package to prevent odors while in storage

=B7         Can be mistaken as a natural gas leak and summon emergency responders

=B7         Discourteous to expose other to fugitive emissions

 

It is beginning to appear to me that dog poop is more hazardous than =E2-mercaptoethanol (=E2ME). I am hoping to hear your experience with using this compound either inside or outside of a fume hood?

 

Thanks,

James Saccardo, CHMM, MPH