Ethidium Bromide containing gels should be collected separately as their own chemical waste, usually in a sealable disposable plastic container such as a bucket or tuperware container with a lid. It is important NOT to put these in with regular biohazardous material that would normally go in a red bag and get autoclaved. For dilute solution containing Ethidium Bromide (0.5 mg/mL should be collected for disposal as hazardous waste. Also, do NOT use bleach to clean up an ethidium bromide spill. Absorb the spill with a paper towel (dispose as hazardous waste) and use 70% ethanol or isopropanol for the bench with the spill until it no longer fluoresces,

Hi, ask your safety representative at your university or in your institute. The safety representative should know how to handle it. Cheers, Nadine

Usually EtBr gels are discarded using specific boxes (halypack, jollypack or other commercial names) that are processed by authorized companies. If there are not such facilities, I would suggest to strong oxidizing chemicals to break down EtBr molecule (I remember that, several years ago, we used to treat EtBr solutions with sodium hypochlorite. But better in this case have an advice from an organic chemist.

All the labs I know use specific boxes that are taken by authorized companies. For liquid, we use choil bags overnight.

I suggest you dry these gels before throwing them away in the boxes, since they are much thinner and lighter (usually, you have to pay according to the weight of the boxes).

Our institution has us put them in bio-hazard waste containers.

Bleaching with hypochlorite is not recommeded. Such treatment reduces the mutagenic acitivity of Et Br but it converts the dye into a compound that is also mutagenic. For agarose gel containing Et Br you should use specific boxes. For liquid , you can use one of the methods mentioned in the attached file. Deactivation may be confirmed by using UV light to detect fluorescence.

My recommendation is that you migrate to Red Safe. My colleagues have been using it and the performance is great. I have been using Sybr Safe, and although works perfectly with most of the bands, faint ones may not be so sharp as with EtBr. Red Safe (http://www.chembio.co.uk/product_detail.php?product_id=150) does not show this problem.

I agree with Nadine, follow your institutional policy...ask your safety folks.

It's better not to try and "treat" the EtBr gel for disposal on your own. It should be disposed in an appropriate biohazard waste containers and have authorized companies handle the disposal processes. If your institute doesn't facilitate this kind of disposal service, it might be a good idea to move to other type of safer gel staining like others have suggested. In our laboratory, we use SYBR® Safe and the gel result turns out as good as EtBr stained gel.

You can follow the safety practices mentioned in following link

http://wwwnew.towson.edu/adminfinance/facilities/ehs/documents/GuidelinesforSafeUseDisposalofEthidiumBromide2.pdf

use gloves and throw it in red basket, you know colour code for different types of waste materials

You should follow the strandred protocol for collect the gel from unit.this gel should be put in a bags.send to the bio hazards department in a industrial waste area. All this bags should be given colour code and date,time,persons handling whenever collected.

Ethidium Bromide containing gels should be collected separately as their own chemical waste, usually in a sealable disposable plastic container such as a bucket or tuperware container with a lid. It is important NOT to put these in with regular biohazardous material that would normally go in a red bag and get autoclaved. For dilute solution containing Ethidium Bromide (0.5 mg/mL should be collected for disposal as hazardous waste. Also, do NOT use bleach to clean up an ethidium bromide spill. Absorb the spill with a paper towel (dispose as hazardous waste) and use 70% ethanol or isopropanol for the bench with the spill until it no longer fluoresces,

since EtBr is carcinogenic so it is not discarded as it is so it should be discarded by boiling with water so it gets deactivated as it is heat sensitive.

Trace amounts of EtBr (less than 0.1%) in electrophoresis gels do not pose a serious hazard so they can be discarded in the trash if properly bagged and secured. If the gels contain more than 0.1% EtBr they should be placed in an appropriate container for hazardous waste disposal. Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) has a variety of containers that are available to collect and dispose of gels.

Aqueous Solutions:

These can be decontaminated or deactivated using the following methods.

Charcoal Filtration:

Filtering the aqueous EtBr waste solutions (free of other contaminants) through a bed of activated charcoal is a relatively simple and effective method for removal of EtBr. The filtrate may be poured down the drain. There are two kits available for charcoal filtration.

Funnel Kit:

Commercial filter funnel kits are available that use a packaged charcoal disk that is graduated for easily tracking the amount of aqueous solution that can be run through it. This is particularly useful for labs that generate large amounts of solutions at a time. The kit is available through Schleicher and Schuell or VWR.

Filter the EtBr solution through the charcoal filter.

Pour filtrate down the drain.

Place charcoal filter in a sealed container (mayonnaise jar) and label as a hazardous waste.

Greenbag Kit:

Another simple charcoal filtration method is the Green Bag, manufactured by BIO 101; The Green Bag® Kit allows rapid and trouble-free concentration of EtBr from large volumes of solutions into a small "tea" bag containing activated carbon, which is then conveniently disposed along with other solid (contaminated debris) hazardous wastes. One kit has the capacity to remove 500 mg of ethidium bromide from solutions (10 mg EtBr/bag).

Place the Green Bag into the EtBr solution.

Allow to sit for the allotted time.

Pour filtrate down the drain.

Dispose of the Green Bag in a sealed container (mayonnaise jar) and label as a hazardous waste.

for gels you can use strong NaOH solution(over night ! )

if you want more power-full method Lunn & Sansone Method:

For each 100 ml of aqueous EtBr solution: • Add 5% hypophosphorous acid. •

Add 12 ml of 0.5 M sodium nitrite. • Stir briefly and let stand for 20 hours. •

Adjust pH to 7-9 using sodium hydroxide. •

Pour down drain with copious amounts of water.

or you can try Armour Method ( Lunn, G.and E. Sansone) old method but which i found easy

You need to immerse the agarose gel in chlorine containing water for few days and then you can discard

You may do one thing .... First dip the agarose gel containing etbr in n-butane this will reduce its efficency and then further add twice the amount of water ,boil this whole mixture and u may further discard this..

You may do one thing .... First dip the agarose gel containing etbr in n-butane this will reduce its efficency and then further add twice the amount of water ,boil this whole mixture and u may further discard this..

You may do one thing .... First dip the agarose gel containing etbr in n-butane this will reduce its efficency and then further add twice the amount of water ,boil this whole mixture and u may further discard this..

We work with agarose gels that are stained with ETBR. Usually at the lab we discard the distilled water containing ETBR after staining the gel into clearly marked containers. Gloves, staining containers and the actual gel itself after being stained is discarded in a chemical waste container that is picked up by a chemical waste company.

Avoid skin contact with anything that the ETBR is touching!! Always wash afterwards with ethanol the surfaces that ETBR could have touched. Discard all cleaning materials in chemical waste containers (same as gels , gloves, etc...) keep separate from regular trash!

Deat Vikas

Ethidium bromide (EB) is commonly used in molecular biology laboratories. While it is not regulated as hazardous waste, the mutagenic properties of this substance may present a hazard.

Trace amounts of EB in gels should not pose a hazard. Higher concentrations, e.g., when the color of the gel is dark pink or red, should not be placed in laboratory trash.

Recommendations:

- Less than 0.1% EB: place in laboratory trash

- More than or equal to 0.1%: place in biohazard box for incineration.

- Consider substituting with a less hazardous material, such as GelRad Nucleic Acid Gel Stain.

To finding an alternative for EB, you can go to the following post by Veera Manikandan with 3976 view and 173 answer:

Can anyone suggest alternatives for ethidium bromide in terms of a non-toxic DNA staining dye?

Cheers

If you are using more than 0.1% then you should follow the instruction of Environmental Health and Safety and lab safety guidelines.

It is advisable to soak the gels in 1% or higher concn. of chlorax and then dispose off the gels to get rid of the harmful EtBr

Ethidium bromide is generally used in molecular biology laboratories. The concentration of Ethidium bromide is less than 0.1%, It discard by dry in a poly bag and autoclave. If the concentration of Ethidium bromide is equal or more than to 0.1%. it discard by dry in a Biohazard box and incineration.