MATERIAL SOLUTIONS
with the water company, which should offer some limits on heavy metals such as lead, cobalt and chromium and guidance in many other areas. This is something LTC are regularly commissioned to conduct. In the first instance, any organisation entering the market for decontamination should be prepared to install, at the very least, a settlement system, with a residence time sufficient to allow settlement of, for example, liquid mercury droplets or glass fibre. This will probably be around 4 hours, provided the system is fitted with baffles, to discourage dead zones and surface bypassing. Then, with a suitable checking regime, it may prove possible to discharge the liquid as quite acceptable waste to the public sewer, whilst arranging for the sludge at the bottom to be collected by a specialist hazardous waste contractor.
CHLORINE MANUFACTURE: Chlorine manufacture using a mercury anode
reasonably be expected to go to drain at the end of the stage, because they are much heavier than water. However, relying on this for complete elimination might be over- optimistic (given the danger of only 1 ppb in the garment atmosphere), so designing the wash chemistry to ensure solubilisation is the much-preferred technique.
Chromium
Chromium ions can exist with two distinctly difference valencies – Chromium (III) and Chromium (VI). Chromium (VI) is by far the most poisonous to humans and because it can occur (unintentionally) on chromium alloys in electronic and microelectronic items, there are tight regulations controlling its presence and relatively simple methods of test for detecting it on metal surfaces. These tests might well work on textiles and if so would provide one quick and inexpensive method for the garment rental operator to provide justified assurance to the workwear customer and individual wearers. This would require LTC to conduct some further R&D work to establish a suitable method for customer assurance.
Hazardous effluent The additional challenges for rental operators could well lie in the potential
DEMOLITION DANGERS: Demolition workers can face unexpected dust and fibre hazards and their workwear can itself becomes dangerous
If you have a problem that you think LTC Worldwide can help with, or that you feel would make a good subject for Material Solutions, please call T: +44 (0)1943 816 545 or E:
enquiries@ltcworldwide.com or W:
www.ltcworldwide.com
@LCNiMag October 2024 | LCN 19
hazards in the effluent being discharged in the future. Water companies treating laundry wastewater can be expected to take a very dim view of anything which might disrupt their treatment processes, especially if it damages the bacterial action required for purification. Rental operators contemplating serious decontamination services should in the first instance examine the small print of their contract
Conclusion
Having studied this article, some readers will be asking themselves “What business am I in? Do I want to be a simple launderer, serving hospitality, for example, or have I got a better future offering decontamination?” That is the right question, but answers will vary widely; there is no ‘right’ answer, but there is an optimum one for every organisation and it could make a critical difference to your future.
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