[Histonet] RE: Xylene sensitivity

[D'Attilio, Shelley]

Hi Tom,
Yes, our Employee Health & Safety department is involved with this problem.  Our lab is negative pressure, but do not know the air exchange rate.  I will definitely ask that to be checked.  

We monitor employees annually and had a full environmental assessment 2-3 years ago prior to installation of a new air handling system for the histology lab.

The coverslipper and stainer are not in a hood.  The Leica H&E Auto Stainer is under two large "air suckers" that are installed in the walls (along with our Peloris and two old Shandon tissue processors), and the coverslipper is on a bench.  Manual coverslipping is rarely performed, but we do have a standard chemical/bio hood for that if required.

A broken belt was discovered on the air handling system yesterday and was repaired.  Hopefully this will help a little bit.

Regards,
Shelley


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