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Decontamination and Disposal of Nitrosoureas and Related N-Nitroso Compounds¹

Environmental Control and Research Program [G. L., E. B. S.] and Microbial Mutagenesis Laboratory [A. W. A.], Program Resources, Inc., and Chemistry Section, Laboratory of Comparative Carcinogenesis [L. K. K.], National Cancer Institute, Frederick Cancer Research Facility, Frederick, Maryland 21701

An improved procedure for chemically decontaminating residues of nitrosoureas and related N-nitroso compounds ("nitrosamides") commonly used in the cancer research laboratory is proposed. Treatment of accumulated wastes with aluminum:nickel alloy powder while progressively increasing the basicity of the medium consistently led to at least 99.98% destruction of each nitrosamide tested. Hazardous diazoalkanes were never detected in yields of greater than 0.1%. The mutagenicity of the completed reaction mixtures was never more than 3 times background except when the N-nitroso compound contained a 2-chloroethyl group. In most cases, the completeness of reaction could be determined chromatographically, not only to demonstrate the disappearance of the starting N-nitroso compound, but also to follow production of identifiable products in sufficient abundance to account for the starting material destroyed; none of the organic products observed was mutagenic in any of the four tester strains used. The procedure described herein proved reliable in two checker laboratories besides our own when applied to mixtures of seven N-nitroso compounds: N-methyl-N-nitroso-p-toluene-sulfonamide; N-methyl-N-nitrosourethane; N-methyl-N-nitrosourea; N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine; N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea; N-ethyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine; and N-ethyl-N-nitrosourethane. All of the other procedures investigated for destruction of nitrosamides, including the widely used approach of dissolving the nitrosamides in alkali, were associated with important disadvantages.

¹ This project has been funded in part with federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract NO1-CO-23910 with Program Resources, Inc.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 5/20/87. Revised 10/21/87. Accepted 10/29/87.