Old Chemicals

Before demolishing the old chemistry building on its c pus, a university called in a disposal service to get rid of old chemicals stored here and there. While this was not cheap, it was felt to be the safest and most efficient way to handle what could have been a potentially hazardous situation. 

A community college had a similar problem when a public-spirited industrial company donated its surplus reagents to the chemistry department. Some were indeed useful, but others were not and never would be. They just sat around for years in boxes and on shelves, posing potential hazards and taking up space that could have been put to better use. 

Since pollution control and waste disposal problems vary greatly from one laboratory to another, they have to be handled on a custom basis. The laboratory operator will no doubt be an expert on the materials used but not on their disposal. It is important for him to stay in touch with people familiar with disposal and provide them with detailed information. 

Industrial laboratories often handle a relatively limited number of chemicals. Since many of these same chemicals are also used on a manufacturing scale, their disposal will have already been planned for by plant personnel. Disposal of chemicals used only in the laboratory, however, for investigative and development purposes must also be considered, as well as reagents used for testing. 

Laboratories handling biologicals have their own special problems. They often have to dispose of small but significant amounts of materials that may be very hazardous. Every laboratory procedure must then be scrutinized with this in mind. 

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An old chemical dump in New York (Love Canal) started to... 

In order for a chemical reaction to occur, there must be a collision between the reactants at the correct place on the molecule, the reactive site. That collision is necessary to transfer kinetic energy in order to break old chemical bonds and reform new ones. If the collision doesn t transfer enough energy, no reaction will occur. 

French scientists at the Pasteur Institute, however, promptly dispelled some of Prontosil s mystery, splitting the molecule into a red dye component and an old chemical, sulfanilamide, its 1909 patent long since lapsed (2 ). The suspicion arose that Domagk, an I. G. Farbenindustrie researcher, had rediscovered sulfanilamide, and that the manufacturer had held it off the market until it could be presented in a new, complex, disguised, and patentable form (2, 3 ) Whether or not the suspicion was true, the French scientists, by showing that sulfanilamide was the therapeutically active fraction of Prontosil, shattered the gigantic Germany company s profitable plans. 

To learn about toxicity prior to the marketing of new chemicals, and to learn about the toxicity of old chemicals that did not have to pass the pre-market test these are two of the major reasons toxicologists have turned to testing in laboratory animals. 

An old chemical dump in Niagara Falls, New York, near Love Canal, began leaking into the environment. A state of emergency and an evacuation of the neighboring area resulted. This episode helped approve the 1980 Superfund law. In 1994, OxyChem agreed to pay New York 98 million. 

Since one cannot be sure about the history of any old bottle of a chemical, one should always dispose of old chemicals very carefully. 

Enzyme catalysis of reactions (biocatalysis) is a branch of biotechnology (Hauer 1999 Crameri 1999). The superiority of biocatalytic methods of synthesis, particularly if carried out in a continuum (Orsat 1999), is often manifestly clear, only limited by the cost of replacing the old chemical plants (Pachlatko 1999 Schmid 2001). Illustrative examples of biocatalytic plants are illustrated in Chart 14.2. 

The story of the disclosure, one by one, of the chemical elements has never been told as a connected narrative. The reports of these discoveries and the life stories of the discoverers are recorded for the most part in old chemical journals, biographical dictionaries, old letters, and obsolete textbooks that are seldom read by the busy modern chemist. It is hoped, therefore, that these chapters may not only render tribute to the honored men and women who helped to reveal the hidden chemical elements, but may also serve to acquaint chemists and others with these great achievements. 

RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS AND METALS. Sometimes referred to as the fraternal fifteen," because of similarities in physical and chemical properties, the rare-earth elements actually are not so rare. This is attested by Fig. 1, which shows a dry lake bed in California that alone contains well in excess of one million pounds of two of die elements, neodymium and praseodymium. The world s largest rare earth body and mine near Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China is shown in Fig. 2. It contains 25 million tons of rare earth oxides (about one quarter of the world s human reserves. The term rare arises from the fact that these elements were discovered in scarce materials. The term earth stems from die tact that the elements were first isolated from their ores in the chemical form of oxides and that the old chemical terminology for oxide is earth. The rare-earth elements, also termed Lanthanides, are similar in that they share a valence of 3 and are treated as a separate side branch of the periodic table, much like die Actinides. See also Actinide Contraction Chemical Elements Lanthanide Series and Periodic Table of the Elements. 

Some of that experience has been enacted into laws and regulations. For example, today the law requires that many chemicals be proven safe for their proposed use before they can be marketed. Thus the research organization may be asked to develop information on acute, subacute, and chronic effects of human exposure to a new or old chemical product. Data also frequently are called for on the effects of exposure on wildlife and the environment and on the routes and metabolism of a chemical in the environment. 

It must also be realized that much information might already be present in the human population. Epidemiological studies of behavioral teratogenic effects of various substances to which developing humans have already been exposed, can yield much valuable information about the eventual dangers of many old chemicals. In addition, such studies can help to find a reliable way to extrapolate findings in animal studies to risks for human development. 

Another chemical company already had a dear biotech strategy in place and had built the capabilities, assets, and networks required to implement it. Execution was already successfully underway in several business units and new bio-based products and processes had started to generate healthy profits. However, the company was now seeking ways to change the old chemical production processes for... 

Chemicals are classified as compositions of matter from a patent statute viewpoint. A claim on a composition protects the inventor without regard to the use of the product. Where a new use is found for an old chemical, if the new use incorporates a change in the physical form or packaging, sometimes product claims can be obtained. More commonly, the new discovery must be claimed as a method of using. Examples are given to illustrate the type of wording which has met acceptance in the Patent Office. No matter how worded, the legal requirements for patentability, particularly unobviousness, must be met. 

Basically a patent can issue on a new chemical, and the patent covers the chemical itself—independent of the use to which the chemical may be put. Similarly, if the chemical is old, a new use for that old chemical does not make the same chemical, which is old, appear as new. Assuming the new use is invention, the problem is to obtain patent protection on the new invention, which for the purposes of this article is a new use. Hence, that aspect which is new must be pointed out and claimed. 

In considering new uses for old chemicals, each category should be considered to determine if useful protection can be obtained in that category. 

A number of patents have issued on an old chemical with a carrier. Gruskin s patent (20) has as Claim 1 ... 

Usually the useful process claims relate to a method of doing something with the old chemical to accomplish a new result. The classic definition of a process is that by the Supreme Court in Cochrane v. Deener (8) ... 

The second difficulty with process claims for new uses of an old chemical is Who should be sued That is How can the patent be enforced If a patent issues on a method of treatment involving the administration of an old substance as a medicine, is the actual infringer the physician or the patient Is the answer different if the patient is an adult, a baby, or an animal If the use is of an insecticide, the infringer is the farmer. If the patentee must file a separate suit for each patient or farmer, he may have a perfectly valid cause of action but it is illusory protection as it is difficult to catch each separate infringer and if he does, the recovery from each could be mockingly small. 

Some new uses of old chemicals can be protected by claiming as an article of manufacture, based on a particular disposition or a special form as adapted for particular uses (56). 

The clock strikes nine. It is time to release the owl, so I creep into the laboratory and pick up the cage. I am not used to being alone here at night, and I sniff old wood, old minerals, old chemicals. Old is the most normal state of things at Selden. The bird is wide awake, and its huge eyes are eerie in its white face. Mrs. Gill says bam owls are birds of ill omen, but my father and I pay no attention to superstitions of that nature. 

Ron G. Manley, Chemical Weapon Agent and Historic Chemical Munitions Disposal The British Experience , in Thomas Stock and Karlheinz Lohs, eds. The Challenge of Old Chemical Munitions and Toxic Armament Wastes (New York Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 231-240. 

Hermann Martens, The Old Chemical Warfare (OCW) Incineration Plants in Munster, Germany , ASA Newsletter, No. 62 (17 October 1997), pp. 1-6. 

Best of all, he found a way into the smelter s small laboratory, where iron ore had once been tested for its metal content. Although deserted for years, it was still packed with boxes of old chemicals, rusting equipment, bits and pieces of chipped glassware, and large blue bottles of acid turning dark with age. 

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