Argentine association presents cyanide report
27/07/2011
Because cyanide was of concern to the Argentine tanning industry in 2010, it was the subject of a round-table discussion at the third National Technical Symposium of the Tanning Industry in Buenos Aires some months ago. Patricia Casey of Curtiembres Fonseca, and vice-president of AAQTIC’s board, was the moderator, while María Inés Iribarne of la Hispano Argentina, Dr Carlos Gotelli from the National Academy of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Horacio González from Buckman, Jorge Garda from Curtiembres Fonseca and Martín Gelaf from la Hispano Argentina also took part. Mr Gelaf was the main speaker.
Measurements taken in a group of tanneries showed cyanide concentration values to be higher than the permitted 1 mg/litre or 0.1mg/litre of cyanide destructible by chlorination. As a result, penalties including closures, have been applied.
This situation has no precedents in the national and international tanning industry and, to confirm it, some local authorities have been consulted and the opinion of overseas consultants has also been considered.
Knowing that tanners do not use cyanide in products for their processes, the panellists agreed that research into this subject needs to continue, especially into the use of the TCMTB fungicide (C9H6N2S3), which is the 2-(thiocyanomethyl) benzothiazole, a cyanide-containing compound.
It has also been confirmed that in the case of an effluent treated in the retanning process with limit values of 700 mg/litre of COD and 200mg/litre of BOD, the addition of sodium hypochlorite, the customary method for the elimination of cyanide from industrial effluents where cyanide salts are used, has caused an increase in the concentration of cyanide destructible by chlorination detected by laboratory method.
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