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Hi Gerald,
I forwarded your question to an employee here at Spectral, Chris Dimas (formally of EXFO) who helped develop liquid light guides for microscopy. Here's what he had to say:
Begin forward message
Hi John,
The first answer I would give is that they can be salvaged in some cases. The main mode of failure is a bubble that appears inside the guide. If the lightguide is put in a sealed container (maybe with a cup of water in there as well), and after a few days, or maybe a week or two, the bubble will have escaped. Then the lightguide can be used for another few months at least.
For disposal i don't think there is anything toxic there. It's mostly glycol and water, and maybe "something else" that's proprietary. I would tell this person to go to the company website and see what they say. They most likely have a have a disposal program for the Hg lamps, so I'm sure they would mention something about the lightguides as well.
Chris
End forward
Hope that helps,
John Oreopoulos
Research Assistant
Spectral Applied Research
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Canada
www.spectral.ca
On 2012-07-21, at 12:08 AM, Gerald Baron wrote:
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy> *****
>
> Anyone know whether any type of recycling program exists for "expired" liquid
> light guides? I don't know about other users, but I have gone through several
> in just a few years and they are starting to pile up. I imagine there might be
> a rather large collection accumulating worldwide. Alternatively, is there an
> environmentally responsible method for their disposal?
>
> Thanks.
Locked
