Ethidium Bromide Waste Reduction ­Simplified

Ethidium bromide (EtBr) is commonly used in molecular biolology laboratories as a non-radioactive marker for identifying and visualizing nucleic acid bands in electrophoresis and in other methods of nucleic acid separation. An easy and effective system for waste reduction is the Whatman Ethidium Bromide Extractor. The Extractor System is a one-step filtration funnel device for the rapid removal of ethidium bromide from gel-staining solutions. It consists of an activated carbon matrix which removes >99% of EtBr from electrophoretic buffer quickly and easily. Each device can decontaminate up to 10 liters of gel-staining solution. After filtration, the decontaminated solution can be safely poured down the laboratory drain.