Skip to main content

Environmental Health and Safety (EHS)

Chemical Safety and Hazardous Waste Document Library

Chemical Safety and Hazardous Waste Document Library

Please complete the following RedCap to help the Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability department plan for the implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule regulating the use of DCM/MC. This information will not be provided to anyone outside the university and is solely for internal planning purposes. The new regulation does not ban the use of DCM/MC in research, nor does Vanderbilt have any intention to ban its use, but it does significantly increase the regulatory requirements for its use. At this time the least impactful course of action for VU labs is to find substitutes if at all possible and subsequently dispose of any DCM/MC currently in stock by notifying us by requesting a waste collection through EHS Assist; however, we recognize that substitution might not be possible in your lab’s processes and we will strive to support you in incorporating these new requirements into your lab’s operations in the least impactful way possible. Only mixtures/products that include DMC/MC below 0.1% by weight are NOT subject to the restrictions in this regulation. 

Please complete the RedCap before January 10, 2025. Once we receive your information, our office will provide more specific support to the labs who will need to continue to use DCM/MC to help you come into compliance before the initial regulatory deadline of May 5, 2025. More info about this new rule is available here.

While there are lab processes that will continue to require the use of DCM/MC, suggested chemical substitutions are summarized below. If you have other suggestions, please email us at chemicalsafety@vanderbilt.edu and we will add them to the list.

Chromatography and extraction are good targets for substitution because they are two of the most common and high-volume laboratory tasks where DCM/MC is used.

  • In a 2008 article in Green Chemistry, the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) group at Pfizer Global Research and Development recommended replacing methylene chloride with Ethyl Acetate/Hexane for chromatography and with Ethyl Acetate, MTBE, Toluene, or 2-MeTHF for extractions.
  • Teledyne ISCO suggests a 3:1 ratio of ethyl acetate to ethanol as a starting point for creating new methods without DCM for chromatography purification.

If you would like to dispose of the DCM/MC in your lab, then please submit a waste collection request here: https://ehsa.vanderbilt.edu/EHSA/waste/wasterequest/wasterequestedit?pkey=0

Please email chemicalsafety@vanderbilt.edu with any questions. We greatly appreciate your cooperation and collaboration with this new requirement.

Link to this FAQ

Chemical Compatibility Chart
Chemical Storage Group Sign
Hazardous Chemical Waste Accumulation Area – Portrait
Hazardous Chemical Waste Accumulation Area – Landscape

 

 

Chemical Sharps Disposal

Link to this FAQ