[Histonet] Xylene re-use SOP

[Adam .]

Hi all,

Our small research lab recently has been investigated by a very aggressive
environmental health and safety inspector, and she asked us to write up the
standard of practice for any chemicals that we re-use, including all the
chemicals we re-use for deparaffinization and dehydration and rehydration of
slides. We currently keep a few bottles of xylene and graded ethanol that we
dispense into staining racks used for deparaffinizing and rehydration of
sections. We pour the bottles back into their containers once we're done
with them and reuse them until it has a lot of paraffin detritus in it. We
do this all by hand.

EH&S wants us to do the following:

If a container is labeled "in process" or "recycled" be sure to have an SOP
written up describing what is being done and what is meant by "recycled" (in
this case a solution is being used again).  Be sure to say at what point the
solution is waste and then how it is managed after that (properly labeled
and disposed). Don't label containers “waste” or “used” unless it is labeled
with a properly filled out yellow hazardous waste sticker provided by EH&S.

I have no idea what they're looking for, but they've gotten quite strict in
enforcing all sorts of vague regulations. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,
Adam