[Histonet] Xylene exposure???

[Bobrowitz, Carol]

Hello,

 

I've been monitoring the discussion about Xylene.

 

No one has mentioned Latex.

 

I have the exact symptoms but from Latex.

 

Our lab is Latex free (???) but there are many items impossible to
remove.

Yes, we use powder free nitrile gloves.

Examples:  floor tiles, paint on the walls, shoes, vacuum seals on the
processor, the vortex.

 

Bananas should not be eaten with a Latex allergy. (Go figure)

 

About 15 years ago a supervisor developed a Latex sensitivity and needed
to resign

her position in a major Milwaukee histology lab.

This was sudden. 

Her home needed to be stripped of latex paint, carpeting and padding
removed.  

Your home is loaded with latex products.

 

Back to Xylene.

 

You will NEVER be removed from Xylene fumes in a histology lab.

Your intensity over time will only get worse.

 

Yes, I understand there are substitutes and/or mineral oil.

Yes, you can wear masks, work further away from the usage, work as a
team and

depend on fellow techs to perform those duties etc, etc, etc.

 

Even if you work with the architects to design a lab with excellent
ventilation and air flow, 

you will still be sucking up those fumes.  You just can't smell them any
more.

  

Did you know not all hoods remove Xylene???

 

Over the years I have seen many changes in histology.

This is safer than the old one but to find out the replacement is worse
then the first.

 

The pathology lab I transferred from was next to the morgue.  A water
main broke and flooded

the morgue and from under the door came many years of mold and whatever
into our histo lab.

The blood too came in.  The Docs and PA's were doing autopsies with hip
waders on.

After cleaning up the mess I was sick for months.

 

The ceiling tiles around the vents were caked with black cigarette tar
from years ago when techs smoked, yes

also during coverslipping from Xylene.

 

The cock roaches were huge and you had to be careful using the bathroom
for fear they'd go up

your leg. We had to be careful not to step on a female roach carrying
eggs.  

Those eggs went home on your shoes.

 

We had absolutely no ventilation for Xylene or Formaldehyde.

 

Disel fumes from the loading dock were sucked into the lab. (needed to
be put on oxygen once)

 

Keeping extra shoes at work wasn't a good idea.  The mice. 

 

Yes, I did try to change things but sometimes the powers above are
difficult to deal with.

Finally someone listened.  They tore the building down.

 

I credit the younger generations of histology personnel for their
continual due diligence 

making histology labs a safer environment.  Thank you and keep up the
excellent work.

 

Supervisors or managers can only do so much until their hands are tied.

  

Choosing to work in a Histology Lab is your choice.

 

Day 1 you know about the hazards and challenges.

 

Every Histology book written mentions the down sides.

 

If you are paranoid and not happy with the conditions it's your
individual choice to work in Histology.

 

It is your personal responsibility to eliminate hazards to your health.
(some you can, some you can't)

 

In the past forty years Histology has changed with leaps and bounds.

 

So much good has come to Histology.

 

In clinical pathology labs and research labs Histology has an open
future.

 

Just think maybe, no Xylene, Formalin or DAB.

 

I really want to see the future from my rocking chair.

 

Yes, Glen, we miss the old lab.

 

Respectfully,

 

Carol Ann Bobrowitz HT/HTL/ASCP

Medical College of Wisconsin

cbobrowi <@t> mcw.edu