Letters: July 2021
Readers discuss whether air rifles or bomb disposal techniques are best for dealing with waste chemicals
I was pleased to read Paul Roebuck’s letter on disposing of waste chemicals by shooting the bottles. It took me back to the mid-1970s, when I worked at Fisons Research and Development department in Loughborough, UK.
We had a similar solution for dealing with suspect bottled materials, only we had to use an air rifle. The chosen location was on land at the rear of the car park and we used a large metal tray employed for fire training. Our risk assessment was limited to firing away from parked cars and hiding behind a skip. We never had an explosion, even from dried out picric acid or very old ether with a deposit on the bottom of the Winchester. We carried many potentially labile materials through a large building in plastic buckets. Those were the days!
Roebuck mentioned the much-missed Colonel Shaw and I am sure many chemists of a certain age will remember his outstanding lecture (with lots of bangs) on explosives.
Tony Payne CChem MRSC
Ilkeston, UK