Hello all,
We moved into our new lab this week and I have serious concerns about the new type of plumbing that was install withour any consultation on our part.  Each sink in the department is connected to a large (15 gal) plastic dilution tank which sits directly under each sink. The inlet pipe is plastic, but all outlet piping and drains are COPPER. The tanks are supose to have Marble Chips in them to neutralize any acids, and therefore the effulent is supose to be safe for copper pipes.  However, we are a typical medium sized lab, and use all kinds of things that I think will go right through these neutralizing tanks and eat out the copper plumbing.  Secondly, I think that several types of explosive substance could build up in the copper drains.  Thirdly I think the tanks themselves are hazardous, as we have no idea as to what type of heavy metal or other precipitates will form in these tanks when we dump our various reagents down the sinks. We avoid dumping Mercuric and Silver compounds, but currently everything else goes down the drain as we are using very dilute solutions, and they would not be of any concern with standard chemical resistant plastic drains. Your comments would be appreciated.
Kerry Beebe  ART
Histology Dept
Kelowna Gen Hospital
Kelowna B.C. Canada.