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I am constantly amazed that after 15 years of running an information service on lead - I can still learn about new uses of lead! Today I was asked by a sugar mill lab worker how to safely dispose of the 20 litres or so per fortnight of each of lead contaminated (1-2%) sludge and lead contaminated liquid waste created from the following process. Wet lead acetate (or sometimes dry lead acetate) is used to floc out all the rubbish in the sample because you have to pass light through the sugar (syrup?) sample to assess the sucrose content. This process is only done in the lab and there is no risk therefore of addition of lead to the food chain. The sugar mill lab staff then add soda ash and settle out the lead and filter it and burn the resultant sludge on the boiler. This last bit of burning on the boiler is the part they seek to replace if only they can find a hazardous waste collector to come out to such a remote sugar mill. But my question to LeadWorkers egroup is: has anyone dealt with a lead poisoned sugar mill lab worker or have sugar mills elsewhere worked out how to assay the sucrose without using lead? What is the alternative method? Or is it just that sugar mill lab workers never have blood lead tests?
I look forward to any info I can pass on to the worker.
Yours Sincerely
Elizabeth O'Brien,
Manager, Global Lead Advice & Support Service (GLASS), run by The LEAD Group Inc.
Web: www.lead.org.au
Email: info@...
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