[Histonet] Keeping Histo room floor clean?

[Grantham, Andrea L - (algranth)]

I periodically use a scraper to get the wax off the floor under the microtomes and I have housekeeping strip the floors a couple of times a year. We also use a shop vac to vacuum up around the embedder and throughout the lab. We have sticky mats at the entrance to the microtome stations and at the door to the embedding room. Also Market lab makes these mats that trap paraffin and we have them throughout the lab. They come in a couple different sizes and also you can get custom sizes.
All this because we almost took out our department head one day when he went slipping over the waxy floor - before my time but I imagine it wasn't pretty.
You also just have to be aware that what we do produces waxy debris and you have to be careful as to not make such a big mess. I teach the students to be neat and to clean up after themselves - and they do!

Andi


On Jun 14, 2011, at 3:44 PM, JR R wrote:

> 
> We keep getting a lot of paraffin on the floor of one histo room--especially around the microtome and the embedding station.
> 
> Short of laying down a tarp, what do folks do keep wax off of the floor?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jerry Ricks
> Research Scientist
> University of Washington
> Department of Pathology
> 		 	   		  _______________________________________________
> Histonet mailing list
> Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
>