[Histonet] Re: bunsen burner at the embedding center

[Paula Sicurello]

I worked for the Navy Hospital in San Diego, way back in the day, and we
did an extraction with fuming HCl (straight, 100% HCl for folks who didn't
know what fuming meant).  Several people would get nosebleeds every time
they performed the extraction.  I finally got one of those fans that looks
like an airplane propellor in a cage and pried open the painted shut
windows.  I dared anyone to stop me, no one did!  1 was quite gutsy for a
22 year old.
The Petty Officers had me make 10N NaOH and forgot to tell me how hot it
got.  I almost dropped it when I picked it up.

Plus I had to swim to work, both ways in a rip tide-battleing sharks and
jelly fish, while sloshing around in an earthquake!  It is San Diego after
all.

Happy Friday!

Paula
-- 
Paula Sicurello, HTL (ASCP)
Supervisor, Clinical Electron Microscopy Laboratory
Duke University Health System
Rm.#251M, Duke South, Green Zone
Durham, North Carolina 27710
P: 919.684.2091
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On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 11:25 AM, jeff lowen <lowenjeff <@t> hotmail.com> wrote:

> yet here we are......how much of what they tell us is hyperbole?
>
> > Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 14:50:24 +0000
> > From: mucram11 <@t> comcast.net
> > To: rsrichmond <@t> gmail.com
> > Subject: Re: [Histonet] Re: bunsen burner at the embedding center
> > CC: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> >
> >
> >
> > I actually knew the person you are speaking of and it was his favorite
> trick.  We should be careful these younger people are using gloves for
> everything now to protect themselves.  W hen I started in Histology even
> the pathologists cleaned the paraffin off their hands with xylene and
> encouraged everyone to do the same .  We used so many things that are now
> not even allowed to be open on this planet and did know how dangerous or
> serious the possible issues could be over time.
> >
> >
> > Pam Marcum
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Bob Richmond" <rsrichmond <@t> gmail.com>
> > To: "Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu" <
> histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
> > Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 9:35:55 AM
> > Subject: [Histonet] Re: bunsen burner at the embedding center
> >
> > I distinctly remember when I was a resident at Johns Hopkins in the late
> > 1960s that the histotechs would smoke while staining and coverslipping
> > without much ventilation. When I suggested to the chief technologist (who
> > later died of smoking related disease at 65, but at least he hadn't set
> > himself afire) that this wasn't such a good idea, he responded by
> stubbing
> > out a lighted cigarette in a Stender dish full of xylene (apparently you
> > can do this trick with gasoline also, but don't try it at home please).
> >
> > Buffering formalin was prohibited back then, and they removed the
> formalin
> > pigment by passing the sections through a concentrated solution (20 or
> 30%)
> > of picric acid in acetone. I'm glad he didn't try the cigarette trick in
> > THAT Stender dish.
> >
> > Fast-forward nearly half a century, and in the three labs I'm working in
> > I'm still grossing formalin-fixed tissue with minimal ventilation, but at
> > least people aren't allowed to smoke in the lab any more.
> >
> > Bob Richmond
> > Samurai Pathologist
> > Maryville TN
> > _______________________________________________
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