Dr Ron Najafi podcast Port Caps
Dr. Ron Najafi: Port Caps Podcast Transcript (Run Time: 7:32)
Dr. Ron Najafi
Kristi: This is the CP Lab Safety Learning Center Podcast, I’m Kristi Brekhus.
As you know working with hazardous chemical waste can pose serious challenges. Successfully collecting and storing hazardous waste has been an issue in labs for many years, however, 20 years ago safety took a big step forward with the invention of the Port Cap or Filling Cap and closed waste system. Last week I caught up with Dr. Ron Najafi, Chemist, Entrepreneur, Port Cap enthusiast and inventor to find out more about this handy device.
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Kristi: Hi, I’m here today with Dr. Ron Najafi. How are you, Ron?
Ron: Good, thank you.
Kristi: It’s great to have you here. So, could you please tell me a little bit more about yourself and Emery Pharma?
Ron: Sure, I am the CEO of Emery Pharma. Emery Pharma is a contract research and development laboratory located in Alameda, California. We’re FDA registered, DEA Licensed and GLP/GMP compliant. Half of our team is involved in chemistry and the other half in biology. We have chemistry laboratories; microbiology lab, cell-biology lab and mycology lab. We’re involved in a lot of chemistry projects that use solvents with HPLC, UPLC and LCMS and we also have our own nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer.
Kristi: That’s very cool! The purpose of my interview with you today is I want to talk about port caps, their functions and why they’re being used. Can you give me a brief history of the port cap?
Ron: Port caps really are a creation of the last 20 years or so, they didn’t exist before that. The chemists who have been around know that typically instruments such as HPLC and various robotic synthesizers or LCMS’s create a lot of liquid waste. These are solvents that go through the instrument and simply go into a waste bottle. Typically, we take a used solvent bottle, normally they are amber glass, and put the waste line directly into the bottle for collection. In some cases, people have used parafilm to connect with the dangling line and the bottle, other times they have used aluminum. The problem with those systems are that they are open to the environment and typically you are using acetonitrile or dichloromethane which are volatile solvents. A lot of these solvents have a boiling point of 350 to 800 Celsius and they evaporate over time! And where do they evaporate? Of course, in the lab! The lab has a very strong air flow because of all the fume hoods. So, these solvents get evaporated into the lab and become a part of the air we’re breathing as they come back into system’s air makeup and back into the lab and offices. Ultimately, it contaminates the inside and outside environment over time.
20 years ago, a number of very concerned chemists came up with the idea of creating a port cap to prevent evaporation of these volatile solvents. The port caps took different shapes and connected to different bottles. As a part of my own handy invention, ECO Funnel, we came up with a very easy way to connect the HPLC waste lines directly to the funnel, which worked really well on first try. There are other types of port caps people have invented and they’re great products, too. CP Lab Safety, which is a company I founded 20 years ago, has the largest selections of port caps on the planet.
That’s really the history of Port Caps… and I’d really like to see more and more of them being used when I go visit labs around the globe. I often visit university labs or industry labs and, by and large, industry labs are far more compliant with using port caps than academic labs. That’s why academic labs have a strong solvent odor. I encourage all chairmen of the departments of chemistry and biochemistry to adopt some of these industry-wide safety systems such as port caps and eco funnel. It introduces students to modern safety equipment and create a healthier environment for everyone.
Kristi: So, what your saying is that port caps essentially help keep pollution out of the air in laboratories?
Ron: Exactly.
Kristi: I think that’s a great thing! Are these Port Caps difficult to use or install? Can you give me a little more detail on that?
Ron: They are extremely easy to use. When you’re buying a port cap from CP Lab Safety, you simply need to point out how many lines and the outer diameter of each HPLC line going into the port cap. They will then provide you with everything you need as a “Port Cap Kit”. Once you have it, you simply put in your lines and put it on top of your waste bottle.
Kristi: Wow, that sounds super simple and efficient. How long have you been using them?
Ron: We’ve been using them forever at my previous company, NovaBay, and now at Emery Pharma. To be honest with you, I was one of the early adopters with the use of ECO Funnel. Of course, we also use other port caps as well.
Kristi: Very cool. Would you say Port Caps have made a positive impact on Emery Pharma?
Ron: You know, it’s not really one product that makes a positive impact in the laboratory environment. It’s really a combination of multiple things. I think the ECO Funnels and port caps are incredibly positive in terms of reducing odors in the lab. If you look at the number of bottles that are sitting underneath HPLCs in a typical laboratory, you’ll realize all those bottles are evaporating 5 – 30mL per day, and that quickly adds up. These things that evaporate go into our lungs, on our skin and in our eyes. It’s an additive thing, so it’s not just one thing that makes a difference but Port Caps are part of the solution.
Kristi: Okay. Thank you for telling me all about yourself, Emery Pharma and Port Caps. I think it’s so important that we try to keep our laboratories safe and that we start practicing sustainable ways of conducting all the things we do in the workplace. Thank you so much for being here today.
Ron: It absolutely was a pleasure and I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you.