| Abstract
| - Analytical and other research laboratories that generatesmall volumes of dioxin-containing wastes have no convenientmethod for their disposal. We have used ultravioletphotolysis with a low-pressure mercury lamp to destroy dioxin-like compounds, both as individual congeners and inactual waste analytical samples, down to nondetect levels.Photolysis promises to be an efficient, safe, and inexpensivemethod for on-site treatment of liquid laboratory wastesthat are contaminated by dioxin-like compounds, allowingthe treated materials to be discarded as regular organicsolvent waste. Experiments with 1,6-[3H]-2,3,7,8-TCDD revealedthat the principal photolytic pathway involves cleavageof C−O bonds rather than C−Cl bonds, giving chlorinatedhydroxydiphenyl ethers as the initial products andaccounting for the low material balances of reductivedechlorination products previously found upon photolysisof PCDDs. The photolysis products from 2,3,7,8-TCDD do notbind to either the Ah receptor or the estrogen receptorin vitro, making it unlikely that the products from UV treatmentof PCDD/PCDF in laboratory waste will show either Ahor estrogen receptor-mediated toxicological effects.
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