Work crews will remove and dispose of three quart-size containers of ethyl ether from the University of Iowa’s Medical Labs Wednesday afternoon, starting around 5 p.m.

Police tape and public safety officials will cordon off the area as a precaution, although the public risk is minimal. A staging tent, where the chemicals will be neutralized, will be set up between Med Labs and the John W. Eckstein Medical Research Building.

Faculty, staff, students, and visitors who use the building will be notified about the removal, which is expected to take less than an hour.

The old canisters were discovered recently in a storage room in Med Labs.