[Histonet] Safety

Morken, Tim - Labvision tpmorken <@t> labvision.com
Thu Feb 5 15:03:43 CST 2004


Becky, I would suggest you talk with your fire marshal about that 55 gallon
drum - I seriously doubt that quantity will be allowed in your lab - it
certainly isn't under CAP guidelines.

Tim Morken





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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