[Histonet] Formaldehyde Ban???

[Amos Brooks]

Hi,
    Regarding the recent post saying that Europe is planning to eliminate
formalin, I ask "How dumb is that?!" How can they completely wreck any
correlation of testing between laboratories? Well remove the standard of
course! Anyone that uses formalin would need to use something else. Has
anyone thought of what they should use? One lab uses X while another uses Y.
Exponentiate that for all the labs in Europe and eventually elsewhere. There
will be absolutely no basis for comparison between facilities. With more
molecular testing being used you'd think the tendency would be toward order
rather than chaos.
     The only logical way to control this mess would be to make the law a
replacement rather than a ban. Something like: All labs in Europe need to
use 'X fixative'. Obviously 'X fixative' would need to be an open source
formulation so no one company would have a monopoly on the market. (Ask
Microsoft about how Europe feels about monopolies!) That would be a ruling I
could agree with. This haphazard, willie-nillie, every lab for itself,
switch just doesn't make any sense.
     By the way, I don't think Dracula would like the taste of any of these
fixatives in his blood ... Blah! ... Bleagh!!

Amos Brooks