PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Lab Chip Technol.
Sec. Environmental Sensors, Sustainability and Reaching Net-Zero
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frlct.2025.1693514
This article is part of the Research TopicTowards an Eco-Friendly Future for Microfluidics, Lab on a Chip and Point-of Care DevicesView all 3 articles
The Environmental Price of Diagnostic Scale-up—Addressing a toxic trade-off we cannot afford
Provisionally accepted
- 1African Society for Laboratory Medicine, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- 2Waste Not Want Not, washimton DC, United States
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The scale up of diagnostic service in many Low-Income Countries (LIC) has greatly improved health outcomes of the populations being served by 21st century laboratory platforms like those seen in High Income Countries (HIC). A challenge because of this scale up is the contribution of increased volume of plastic and hazardous chemical waste that needs to be properly managed with limited options as compared to what is available in HIC. Guanidinium thiocyanate (GTC), as an example, a widely used component of extraction reagents used in Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing, when inappropriately disposed of can cause harm to animals and the environment because it contains a toxic cyanide compound. While environmental short term disposal methods exist that would improve the practices and offer alternative waste treatment options, challenges in availability of required infrastructure and sustainability remain, thereby limiting their impact. While testing generates revenue, waste associated with testing is a cost that is not adequately funded hence unsustainable in the current environment. The availability of alternative compounds that are less toxic yet can achieve the required actions may provide a lasting solution. Developing platforms geared towards microchemistry as well as the recyclability of the materials used for testing would steer waste/material management in a new direction. We call on diagnostic manufacturers to consider these options upstream of the product lifecycle in the long term that are in line with their internal corporate commitment to sustainability beyond the manufacturing process.
Keywords: Waste Management, waste disposal, GTC, Guanidinium thiocyanate, Hazardous waste and management
Received: 27 Aug 2025; Accepted: 25 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Odhiambo, van der Puije, Krisiunas and Mataka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Collins Otieno Odhiambo, cotieno@aslm.org
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