[Histonet] Re: Does xylene cause skin cancer?

[Bob Richmond]

As I failed to mention in my earlier post - the problem with a
registry is that many (most, in my personal experience) American
histotechnologists are completely uncertified, and would not appear in
any registry. One would hazard a guess that these uncertified techs
get the most xylene exposure.

Bob Richmond
*****************************************
On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 1:33 PM, Bob Richmond <rsrichmond <@t> gmail.com> wrote:
> 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