[Histonet] Safety

[Stacy McLaughlin]

Becky,
All of the safety discussions have really gotten my attention as well.  I
work at a small hospital with 3 techs and 3 pathologists. In a very small
room. I just joined a year ago. I've been in histology for 12 yrs. 
As far as dumping solutions down the drain, try enlisting the help of your
institution's safety officer.  Try contacting your local water/sewer
department.  When I arrived they were still dumping silver, gold, chromic
acid and others down the drain.  The excuse was always "it's such a small
quantity."  I am not comfortable with heavy metals and carcinogens going
into our water system.  Thankfully I got the extra help I needed from
outside my department to back up that decision.
As for the fumes, we monitor formalin and xylene.  This year we are starting
ethanol and methanol as well. I use gloves when coverslipping. Like
yourself, we have a lot of issues that need to be addressed.  Not always an
easy task, given the fact that so many people want to do things their way.  
I'm trying to get rid of our glass specimen jars with cork tops!  Been an
uphill battle for years...
Good luck,
Stacy McLaughlin   

-----Original Message-----
From: Rebecca Barnhart [mailto:RBARNHART <@t> summithealth.org] 
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 10:28 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Safety


After all the discussion with the pregnancy in the lab that I have read it
started making me think. I have worked in the lab almost 9 years and when I
started I noticed some safety concerns and finally some have began to
change. Don't get me wrong, we use safety precautions but there are things
we overlook because they have became the norm for us.  For example we use to
store our used americlear and acetone in gallon jugs (the empty alcohol,
americlear, acetone, etc ones) under our stainer that sits on a wood table.
There would be anywhere from 12 to 16 gallons until it was dumped, for
several weeks up to a month.  Finally we are getting it dumped at least once
a week and in the very near future we are renovating our histo lab.  This
will enable us to have a 55 gallon drum in a flam cabinet so we can dump our
waste in as we change the processor and stainer.  Some of my concerns are
dumping all waste (except americal and acetone) down the drain, cover
slipping and changing the solutions.  Currently we coverslip on the counter,
no hood.  Same with changing the solutions.  I use the hood to dump old
solutions out and new in but not everyone does.  How does everyone else
handle the issue of fumes, dumping waste down the drain and any safety
issues? We are a small lab, only 2 histo tech and 1 pathologist.  We are in
a small room (at least with our renovation it will be opened up more, which
I think will help with ventilation) All new employees seem to notice a
smell, even ones that are use to the histo environment.  Scary as it sounds
I am use to the smell.  Thanks in advance for all the input.

Becky Barnhart
rbarnhart <@t> summithealth.org 




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