From: REMOVE_THISdwilkins@means.net (Don Wilkins)
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: Re: Sodium azide disposal
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 10:20:29 GMT

On Tue, 13 Jun 2000 13:08:17 GMT, zugor <zugor@my-deja.com> wrote:

>,;would anyone have a detailed procedure for destroying sodium azide?
>,;I have an aqueous solution of this compound (5 g in 500 ml of water)
>,;to dispose of. Cerium ammonium nitrate is the reagent indicated in the
>,;encyclopedia of reagents (Paquette), however, no practical details is

Do you have access to a toilet? Indoor? Outhouse?

5 grams in 500 ml of water. Good Lord if you add a whole bunch of
chemicals to do some dastardly thing to the azide you will have added
more junk to the environment than if you just dump it down what ever
receptacle you sit on after you have completed digesting whatever you
gorged yourself on a few hours ago.

Think! Think! The regulators don't necessarily think. Don't increase
the environmental load unnecessarily.

If you just gotta oxidize it in order to sleep nights add enough
permanganate to a slight pink color and then add enough vodka to turn
it colorless.

From: REMOVE_THISdwilkins@means.net (Don Wilkins)
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: Re: Sodium azide disposal
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 00:56:59 GMT

On Thu, 15 Jun 2000 19:50:33 GMT, Uncle Al <UncleAl0@hate.spam.net>
wrote:

>
>
>zugor wrote:
>>
>> In article <3948E9EF.1AC0C6B4@hate.spam.net>,
>>   Uncle Al <UncleAl0@hate.spam.net> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > zugor wrote:
>> > >
>> > > In article <2vogks0mjt02ssvud0dmobl0u8rdg18iol@4ax.com>,
>> > >   Roy Jensen <royj@uvic.ca> wrote:
>> > > > >would anyone have a detailed procedure for destroying sodium
>> > > > >azide?
>> > > >
>> > > > 1. Pack a reflux condenser with copper or lead shot.
>> > > > 2. Set up as standard reflux but with no heat.
>> > > > 3. Add 2 equivalents of acid dropwise through dropping funnel.
>> > > >
>> > > > Congratulations! you have now converted your sodium azide into
>> > > > copper or lead azide. Dispose of accordingly.
>> > > >
>> > >
>> > > ????
>> > > have you ever tried this?!
>> > > also noted in the Paquette Encyclopedia of Reagents :
>> > > 'it(sodium azide)forms highly explosive azides with metals such as
>> > > Cu, Pb, Hg, Ag, Au ...'
>> > > what do you think??!!
>> >
>> > You miss his delicate sense of humor, soon to be honed with 60 days'
>> > further exposure to Uncle Al.
>>
>> ok, but that does not solve my problem...!
>> zugor
>
>Since just about anything you do to a small volume of dilute azide
>renders it more and more prolongedly hazardous, the solution is
>dilution.  Flush it down the toilet.  By the time the sewer waste
>stream reaches anywhere important the azide will be long gone.

I agree.

The jerk has 5 grams in 500 ml of water. When he dumps it in the
toilet bowl and flips the handle the 5 grams is followed by and mixed
with perhaps 5 gallons of water. It enters the sewer system and gets
mixed with mixed with Gawd only knows how many gallons of water plus
various other organic species including a few condoms.

There just ain't any harm gonna come to anybody from HN3  who sticks
their nose down a sewer pipe and sniffs . The product of any reaction
isn't going to cause any harm to the population or the environment.
You are going to get some sodium ions and some products of the
oxidation of the azide ion. Now go back and look at the crap that
other posters suggested you add to render the azide harmless. What in
hell are you going to do with this increasing volume of contaminants?

All you need to do is look at all of the "paper" solutions to this
problem and it is obvious that the "solutions" contribute more to the
problem than the "flush".

Zugor sometimes you just gotta stop and think. Sometimes government
regulations just do not make any sense. Your problem is one of those
cases.