Alpha-amylase (CAS 9000-90-2): storage and disposal

Dust decides how this jar is handled before it decides where it sits. Because the powder may cause allergy or asthma symptoms or breathing difficulties if inhaled, keep the jar tightly closed, in a labelled tub or bag, in a dry store away from food and drink areas. Place it where nobody has to shake or tap powder around to reach it. Date the 1% solution bottle when it is filled, and keep it apart from the dry powder. In a school prep room, avoid sweeping up spilled powder dry, since that puts dust into the air.

Few warning signs are specific to the dry powder, and enzymes can lose activity without any visible change, so appearance says little about whether stock still works. Look at the container: caking or clumping from damp, powder dusted round the cap, a split label, a lid that no longer closes. The 1% solution is easier to read, since a cloudy bottle, floating flecks, a surface film or a sour smell shows it has spoiled. Record what you see, and do not open a cloudy bottle or shake a caked jar.

By specialist collection only. It never goes down the drain or into general waste. It is normally packed in a non-regulated or low hazard laboratory pack with compatible chemicals.

How it leaves the site is by specialist collection under waste code 16 05 06*, in a lab pack with other solid chemicals, with the powder and the 1% solution listed separately. Because inhaled dust is the classified hazard, the jar should stay closed and nobody should tip it out, sweep it up dry or empty a jar to make the load tidier. A drain or sink is not a route for either form, and a spoiled solution should not be poured away. Record the label wording, the form and the approximate quantity.

Usually held as: solid, 1% solution.

Part-used bottles and full containers are both fine. Tell us the size and how many, and an estimate is enough for a first price.