Science departments in Madras Christian College to go green

Chennai: In an approach to conserve the environment, Madras Christian College (MCC) is all set to take a protocol in turning its science departments into green.

From the minimal usage of hazardous chemicals to treating the wastewater, green departments propose to cut down the waste generation.

Chemistry department is the first to implement the idea in the college by embracing smart methods to conduct UG and PG laboratory classes. In this connection, department has organised a one day workshop on Green Laboratory Practices through micro organic chemistry qualitative analysis with Dr. Murugan, former Head, Department of Chemistry, Hindu College, Nagercoil and Dr. Jeya Rajendran, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Loyola College, Chennai as resource persons. Head of the department, Dr. Paul Wilson said that as usage of chemicals cannot be avoided in chemical education, in our effort to conserve the environment, we have resolved to replace the highly toxic chemicals with relatively less toxic ones.

For example, much used gas for chemical analysis – Hydrogen sulphide will be replaced with sodium sulphide, as the former is a poisonous gas,” said Paul Wilson. He further added that the department is in the process of getting its professors equipped in adopting green protocol comprising minimal use of chemicals.

This would reduce the consumption of chemicals to a larger extent during laboratory proceedings leading to most experiments being carried out hereafter with less than 1 ml of solutions or even few drops. “It doesn’t compromise the accuracy in the analyses, rather it would help cut down the waste,” the department’s head added.