1. Wonder if he belongs to the Sierra Club or Mountineers?

Posted by: WVH on March 7, 2007 08:38 PM

2. The far greater crime dealing with Daniel Storm disposing of five gallons of ethyl ether down the drain was the charge of $15,000 for the so-call proper disposal fee. The criminal act of theft of $15,000 dollars is the outrage that caused the action of Daniel Storm in the first place. What great effort is required to dispose of said product? The insult to common sense proved too much. It is known by many people inside and outside the industry dealing with toxic waste and waste in general is that most of it is dealt with the old fashsion way, in a landfill with the rest of the common waste. It all gets mixed up in a common mass, breaks down, weakens and dispersed. DGD

Posted by: Daniel Dunning on March 7, 2007 09:55 PM

3. The di-ethyl ether was stored safely for years.

Somewhere nearby is a safety qualified customer for the liquid.

Start there with the stupidity. Save the U.W. $15,000 by having an internet clearing house for un-needed but useful hazardous materials. I'm sure such a site existed a few years ago.

Now it's probably called Craig's List.

Posted by: Bart Cannon on March 7, 2007 10:03 PM

4. I'm not too sympathetic to this guy. My hubby had to buy special equipment to trap certain metals from going down the drain at his business. We have to pay attention to medical disposal rules like everyone else--OR ELSE. Too bad these govt. employees think they are exempt from the rules the rest of us in the private sector have to follow. Imagine--he didn't want to have the $15,000 come out of his account---money he likely doesn't even have to earn. Get real, prof. We all have to EARN the money ourselves to pay professionals to pick up medical waste, etc. sheesh

Posted by: Michele on March 7, 2007 10:19 PM

5. http://www.stormlab.org/

I don't know if Daniel Storm belongs to the Sierra Club or Motuntaineers, but his website is above

Posted by: Hiker on March 7, 2007 10:54 PM

6. Oh my God! How terrible it must be to pour ethyl ether into a sewer drain that contains dihyrogen monoxide! There is an extremely alarming chemical reaction that will occur fairly rapidly as a result of mixing these two extremely dangerous and potentially lethal chemicals:

C2H5-O-C2H5 + H20 = 2(C2H5OH)

That is right -- add one molecule of hazardous dihyrogen monoxide to one molecule of hazardous ethyl ether, and you get two molecules of hazardous ethyl alcohol. This is a fairly rapid chemical reaction, and one which should be avoided at all costs!

It has been a blessing to have John McKay protecting us from all these hazardous environmental chemicals, especially the extremely hazardous ethyl alcohol which is formed by disposal of ethyl ether into an ordinary sewer system. Too bad the next U.S. Attorney will probably spend his or her energy prosecuting real criminals who have caused real harm to society.

Posted by: Richard Pope on March 7, 2007 11:54 PM

7. Dear #6, Under normal circumstances ether will not react with water, certainly not in a sewer. The extremely volatile and flammable ether could accumulate in the vent lines mandated by code. It is not possible for Mr Storm to have accumulated five gallons of the stuff.

Diethyl ether, upon long storage [years] can form peroxides which can be detonated upon percussion. The metal cans in which ether has been shipped for the last twenty years make this a very low level threat. At the UW there is a Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Office of a well-funded Enviornmental Health and Safety Department. The Office's function is to provide free disposal of hazardous chemicals (Each investigator's budget is docked over 50 percent to pay for University services). The Department keeps track (or tries to) of the thousands of federal regulations on the use and disposal of chemicals. Each investigator is supposed to provide an inventory of hazardous chemicals in his control (the University publishes a list).

These services do not, however, include calling in the Bomb Squad. I ran into the Squad some 20 years ago when no one was bright enough to close off the route of bicycle commuters to my part of my building. The "bomb" was one half liter (a pint) of ethyl ether. It was hauled away by a million dollars, easily, of Seattle Fire Dept. equipment.

In short, ether, by federal regulation, cannot be put into the sewer. Whether Mr Storm's container was dangerous is highly questionable. It should have been removed without any direct cost. In which case why it was put into the sewer bears inquiry.

Posted by: JB on March 8, 2007 01:54 AM

8. Did anyone call HAZMET?

Come on folks, get with it.

Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on March 8, 2007 06:56 AM

9. Do you guys think this is the first time hazardous or radioactive chemicals were flushed down the sink?

I know some biochemists that told me one of their profs routinely did that.

Posted by: swatter on March 8, 2007 09:19 AM

10. This man is far to educated and should do some time in prison to think what he has done to others. These guys only think of themselves and how much of our money he is spending!!

Posted by: HW on March 8, 2007 11:15 AM

11. Dan Storm deserves what he gets. I had to be around this jerk while in the department and he ruined people's names and careers. He is a consumate liar/backstabber and this was a cowardly action. For your information, he makes well over 100K a year, not including money from speaking engamements and scientific advisory boards. Yes, he is an employee of the State of Washington. Therefore, guess who pays his base salary?

Posted by: The Man on March 8, 2007 12:08 PM

12. MSDS on Ethyl Ether:

Environmental Fate:
When released into the soil, this material is expected to quickly evaporate. When released into the soil, this material is expected to leach into groundwater. When released into the soil, this material is not expected to biodegrade. When released into water, this material is not expected to biodegrade. When released into the water, this material is expected to have a half-life of less than 1 day. When released to water, this material is expected to quickly evaporate. This material is not expected to significantly bioaccumulate. This material has a log octanol-water partition coefficient of less than 3.0. When released into the air, this material is expected to be readily degraded by reaction with photochemically produced hydroxyl radicals. When released into the air, this material is not expected to be degraded by photolysis. When released into the air, this material is expected to have a half-life between 1 and 10 days.

Environmental Toxicity:
The LC50/96-hour values for fish are over 100 mg/l. This material is not expected to be toxic to aquatic life.

http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/E2340.htm

So ethyl ether does react with water, and forms ethyl alcohol. This isn't instantaneous, happens in the very short term -- half life of less than one day means that over 50% of ethyl ether will be converted to ethyl alcohol each day upon exposure to significant quantities of dihydrogen monoxide.

By the way, I remember the Bomb Squad being called out on account of the 500ml bottle of ethyl ether. This was a total overreaction.

Even if the entire 500ml of ethyl ether (approximately one pound) had been converted to peroxide -- highly unlikely -- the explosive force would have still be significantly less than one pound of TNT. Enough to mess up a room pretty bad, but no threat to demolish the building or anything like that.

However, the news media was acting like this small bottle, even with a few crystals of ethyl ether peroxide, could create a large crater on the UW campus.

I think the professor should have taken a gallon of the ethyl ether at a time, and poured it into his gas tank each time he filled up his car. This wouldn't have been any more dangerous than pouring it down the drain, could have saved him a few bucks on fuel, and he wouldn't have been prosecuted for this.

Posted by: Richard Pope on March 8, 2007 12:10 PM

13. A response to #9:

If I jumped off a bride would you jump off a bridge? C'mon...

Posted by: B. Catterall on March 8, 2007 12:24 PM

14. A response to #9:

If I jumped off a bride would you jump off a bridge? C'mon...

Posted by: B. Catterall on March 8, 2007 12:24 PM

15. No. 9 here. Why would I jump off a bridge if you jumped off a bride? How do you jump off a bride?

fruit, what I was saying was that this isn't the first time an illegal dump was done. UW needs to get tougher (which I didn't think needed to be said).

Posted by: swatter on March 8, 2007 01:43 PM

16. #6,

As I recall, the proper chemical name for H2O is Hydrogen Hydroxide rather than the more commonly used Dihydrogen Monoxide. A water molecule actually consists of a hydrogen atom (H) and a hydroxide ion (OH). But then it's been about 45 years since my last chemistry class.

Posted by: RBW on March 8, 2007 01:50 PM

17. Maybe he should have poured the ethyl ether down the sewer of corruption instead?

Posted by: Richard Pope on March 8, 2007 05:55 PM

18. $15k to dispose of a couple of big cans of ether?
Ether a toxic waste/hazardous material?
That is so incredibly stupid. Ether is just not that big of a deal.
I seem to remember a big deal made out of a couple of drums of turpentine found on a lot in Bothel a couple of years ago.
When you label every chemical as hazardous waste you dilute the value of that label. It's bad politics and worse science.
Maybe he should have donated it to Al Gore to use as fuel for his jet.

Posted by: Hairy Buddah on March 8, 2007 10:12 PM

19. Gentlemen:
Two things to remember. The news report was on the conduct (?) of a federal trial hearing. Far downstream from the actual chemical incident. Keeps the US Attorneys too busy to investigate vote stealing in King County. Mr Storm's disposal was simply contrary to federal law. Involvement of the bomb squad is also influenced by federal regulations, thousands of which are imposed on the University as a condition of receiving federal grants ($175 million per annum last I heard).
Second, Mr Storm had disclosed the existance
and quantity of the ether to the University. To expect it to forget his report was pretty dumb. Even if he removed the ether from campus, there would be no legal way to dispose of it himself. He was caught simply by its absence.
"When released into the water, this material is expected to have a half-life of less than 1 day.
When released to water, this material is expected to quickly evaporate." These two statements are quoted from #12's MSDS. The second explains the first.
"When released into the air, this material is expected to be readily degraded ... photochemically...." Otherwise ethyl ether is pretty stable (do not test this with a match).
As to toxicity, it was used as the principal human surgical anaesthetic for a number of decades. Granted it is much more dangerous than modern gas anaesthetics, in part because of its flammability. I was required to use a $4000 machine to administer a non-ether anaesthetic to mice. A federal regulation regarding the care of mice.

Posted by: JB on March 9, 2007 03:58 AM

20. Would all of you defenders of Storm also defend a pharmaceutical/biotech company had they done the same thing?

Posted by: Turd Ferufuson on March 9, 2007 07:27 AM

21. Thought you could sneak that stinkbomb in here?

No one is defending Storm. He can take care of himself.

Posted by: swatter on March 9, 2007 10:29 AM

22. Swatter,

Storm can defend himself? Stinkbomb? C'mon, Seattle loves its liberals. He will get away with it. Also, check out the following website for Storm's salary:

http://lbloom.net/uw05.html

Now what is your viewpoint?

Posted by: Turd Ferguson on March 9, 2007 11:06 AM

23. Yo Yo Yo wussup. So glad to see this story isn't dying off. Let's fan the flames with farts.

Posted by: Bob Ondis on March 14, 2007 06:37 PM

24. Yo Yo, 13k per month for shedding dandruff all over the place and eating peanut butter sandwiches. Thick as pirates. When you're the best, everyone breaks wind for you. Is that luciferase HA-tagged? Hmmm, here's an old can of ether, I think I'll smash it with an axe. I got some low-hanging fruit for you right here.

Posted by: Phouc Alliall on March 14, 2007 06:51 PM

Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:

Remember info?