Menthol (CAS 2216-51-5): storage and disposal

Skin irritation and serious eye irritation are the hazards behind how it is held, and its general storage class means an ordinary dry, labelled shelf with a stock record is enough. The smell is a bigger practical issue. Menthol vapour escapes past loose caps and can taint nearby stock, particularly food grade supplies or unwrapped items in a pharmacy, so keep the lid tight and the jar apart from them. It is a low melting solid, so a warm cupboard fuses the crystals. A tray beneath the jar catches stray crystals, and goggles belong where it is weighed or decanted.

Look at the neck and cap first. Menthol crystals slowly migrate, so fresh looking crystals regrown on the inside of the lid or around the neck show that a jar has been warm and not tightly sealed. A fused mass or a solid block at the base follows warmth, and a strong mint smell in the cupboard means vapour is escaping. Labels can curl or stain where crystals have crept under them, and a cap sometimes sticks to the glass. Few other changes show. A jar with any of these features is recorded as it stands and left closed.

We arrange this by specialist collection. We do not publish a drain or general waste route for any chemical. It is normally packed in a general laboratory pack with compatible chemicals.

Write down what the container really holds before asking for a collection: label wording, grade if stated, the amount left, and whether the crystals are loose, fused or regrown at the neck. A pharmacy jar should say which shelf it came from. Waste code 16 05 06* usually applies in a lab pack, 16 05 08* to a discarded organic chemical outside one, and 18 01 06* in a human healthcare setting, though the producer classifies the waste. Specialist collection is the only route. It must not be put in general waste or a drain, and nobody should try to melt or burn leftovers.

Usually held as: crystals.

Tell us the container size and how many you hold. An estimate is enough to start with, and some items cannot be priced until someone has looked at them.