Most solvent waste from US academic labs ends up in the air

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Daily solvent use is pretty much a given in a synthetic chemistry lab. In academic laboratories, it's such an ingrained part of research that chemists might forget that solvents can be serious safety and health hazards. Commonly used solvents tend to be flammable and carcinogenic, and many can cause organ damage and even death from overexposure. The US Environmental Protection Agency recently added new restrictions and safety measures to the lab favorite dichloromethane because of its adverse health effects (see page 24) . Solvents aren't so great for the environment either. Most are classified as hazardous waste and are known to kill fish, pollute the air, and make water undrinkable. But what many chemists either forget or don't realize is that using solvents in research contributes to climate change. That's because a lot of the solvent waste that comes from academic labs is burned, sending carbon dioxide into the air.