[Histonet] PPE for the Histology lab

[Morken, Timothy]

Martha, that is an extreme view. Eye and face protection in pathology are primarily for splash protection from either chemicals or body fluids. I can't see any need for people sectioning, embedding, etc. Maybe for special stains. Yes for pouring a lot of chemicals. And the idea that anyone visiting the lab, not doing any of the work, always needing eye and gown protection is not necessary unless they are observing work with possible fluid splash or other kind of exposure. And then I would expect to inform them of whatever danger they are in by exposure. 

What you need to do is a risk assessment of each task and how likely various hazards are for each task, then determine what protections are needed. 

When we have issues like this we call in our Environmental Health and Safety department to assess the issue. They are good about keeping things practical. We recently had them assess liquid nitrogen use in our lab after CAP came out with some recommendations about needing oxygen sensors when using liquid nitrogen that spooked our director. They came in with oxygen sensors and determined we have plenty of ventilation and don't need them. At the same time they reviewed all our use of liquid nitrogen and passed off on our procedures and made a few practical recommendations.


Tim Morken
Supervisor, Electron Microscopy/Neuromuscular Special Studies
Department of Pathology
UC San Francisco Medical Center

-----Original Message-----
From: Martha Ward-Pathology via Histonet [mailto:histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu] 
Sent: Monday, September 09, 2019 8:05 AM
To: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] PPE for the Histology lab

Our department is looking at safety issues and one suggestion from our CLIA director is that everyone in the lab (our lab performs IHC only) should wear gloves, a gown and eye or face protection at all times and requiring it for anyone that enters the lab.   We have task specific PPE requirements for these items to be worn when changing solutions on the stainers or working with serum for our indirect immunofluorescence for example but don't require it for FFPE microtomy or loading the IHC stainers.   What are others requiring in their labs?

Thanks in advance for your feedback on this issue.

Martha Ward
Manager, Molecular Diagnostics Lab
Wake Forest Baptist Health
Winston-Salem, NC 27157
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