[Histonet] RE: Rusting in histology department

[gayle callis]

RDO has a high concentration of hydrochloric acid, the source of acid fumes
that corrode metals.  It may not be necessary to use concentrated
decalcifier e.g. RDO or any other HCL based decalcifier for effective
surface decalcification and I suggest diluting this with water to help
minimize fumes.  I also suggest using an enclosed petri dish or plastic
Tupperware container to do this type of decalcification.    

 

You may want to store your decalcifying solution in a plastic container with
lid, as we did with concentrated stock HCl.  Concentrated HCl used to be
shipped in gallon size plastic jug holders so fumes were pretty much
contained, and we had no corrosion in our lab.  One lab recently had to move
their acid from under a sink with metal plumbing parts due to severe
corrosion, or use an acid storage cabinet which very well may be required by
some facilities. 

 

DMSO also causes rusting and we noticed Paraplast plus that contains DMSO
caused rusting of metal parts in an incubator oven and equipment solenoids.
We also did not like the funny taste in our mouths when working with melted
Paraplast plus since the solvent fumes penetrates through skin and membranes
so easily.  We stopped using this  paraffin because of these reasons.   The
paraffin is supposedly effective for better penetration during infiltration
but exposure to fumes was a factor and we now use vacuum/pressure automated
processing to  improve paraffin infiltration   

 

Gayle M. Callis

HTL/HT/MT(ASCP)