[Histonet] CAP questions regarding Microwaves

[Rene J Buesa]

Jessica:
   
  1- About the "household" MW oven: I do not think that everybody has gottent rid of them, but they are not allowed to be used in the lab. I you are using either formalin (tissue fixation) or flammables (like ethanol during staining) the lab MWoven is required to be connected with an exhaust and the household MWoven do not have that feature. You can get in "trouble" during an inspection.
   
  2- MWoven leakage: I will tell you what I used to do. Our MWovens were tested for leakage twice a year by the lab safety officer (or designee). The results were logged. By the way I had two lab MWovens (1 for rapid tissue processing and another for HC staining) both vented. I also had one household MWoven used only to heat the HIER buffers. Never had a problem with CAP.
   
  3- About temperatures in the solutions. You should calibrate your MWoven and prepare heating curves for different liquid volumes and times. I am sending under separate cover a paper I published about calibrating MW ovens.
   
  Hope this will help you.
  René J.

Vacca Jessica <Jessica.Vacca <@t> HCAhealthcare.com> wrote:
  Hi all,
I went through the archive to find out information regarding the new Cap
questions on microwaves and there were no definite answers.....Can I get
a some feedback on the proposed methods for being compliant with these
questions. Here are a couple of ideas that I had. Annual testing- I
purchased a leakage detector (35.00 on line) and will do an annual test
(or is this something Biomed should be doing?) monitoring temps- 3
coplin jars temps prior to going in taking start temps and 1 at a time
place the containers in the exact same spot, 50 mls tap water for 30
secs. Take temp ea time. It gives me a reading of 63 degrees, there can
be a little flexibility but by how much does one recommend? Also what is
everyone considering periodically? 1 a month? As far as the venting
goes, we use a wal-mart purchased microwave, I read in an archive that
these are not allowed according to OSHA. Has everyone out there thrown
away there microwaves that you've been using all these years, or are you
continuing to use them? Thanks in advance for your feedback!
Jessica Vacca
Histology Supervisor
Brandon Regional Hospital
119 Oakfield Dr.
Brandon Fl 33511
(813) 571-5193 or (813) 681-5551 ext 2454
Jessica.Vacca <@t> hcahealthcare.com

_______________________________________________
Histonet mailing list
Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet




 		
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs.Try it free.