[Histonet] Re: Does xylene cause skin cancer?

[Bob Richmond]

What's badly needed is a registry of death certificates of
histotechnologists. The thing I'd want to examine would be the
prevalence of myeloid leukemia and related diseases - known to be
elevated in workers exposed to benzene. If such a correlation were
found, it would mandate eliminating xylene from histology and cytology
labs, and increasing precautions for handling resinous mounting media.

The American Medical Association maintains such a registry of American
physicians (or used to). It was used to establish that exposure to
ionizing radiation (fluoroscopes and other X-ray equipment) was
correlated with deaths from myeloid leukemia. Pathologists didn't have
any particular problems - here I'd wonder about formaldehyde exposure
and upper airway cancer. Pathologists get more exposure to
formaldehyde than do histotechnologists.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN