Re: Bunsen burners in a pathology laboratory

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From:"Barry Rittman" <brittman@mail.db.uth.tmc.edu>
To:histonet@Pathology.swmed.edu
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Date:Fri, 16 Apr 1999 14:14:35 -0500
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Marianne,
 If as you said you do not have enough trained people in your laboratory then that
is the major problem.  The other problem in some laboratories may be poor
design/organization. Many laboratories are based on a design which is far from
modern as an example many use the fume hoods as part the air handling system. Other
laboratories have so many people and bits and pieces of equipment and supplies
crammed into them that they are accidents waiting to happen.
It is easy to say that it is not common sense to use a bunsen but electrically
heated forceps  and incinerating burners are more expensive and often free bunsen
burners are available from other laboratories. Budgets for research laboratories
may also restrict the supplies including safety supplies than can be purchased.
Incidently I do also have an incinerating burner.
There has to be a happy medium.   It doesn't make sense to have carpet in your
house if you have asthma and ceratinly  doesn't make sense to drive a car on
Houston's freeways ...yet we do it. You cannot legislate against ignoring rules.
No matter how safety conscious you are and how well designed your laboratory,  the
human factor is still the most likely cause of an  accident. I have two research
laboratories which if they were under CAP inspections would not pass. We have not
had accidents in them so far because we are aware of accidents that can happen and
act accordingly. Also anyone who works in these laboratories is well trained.
Barry

mosborne@UNMC.EDU wrote:

> Hello, To use a bunsen burner in this day and age is common sense.  We are labs
> that so busy and not enough trained  people to do the work, and why take
> chances.  Someone in the same area with the embedding center could be doing
> staining or specials or just some other flammable, you can't take the chance of
> someone and yourself of being hurt or even killed.
> Here in Nebraska, we had a
>
> histotech killed in an explosion/fire
> using a bunsen burner.  I am serious.  All of us in the state use forceps
> warmers or/and incinerating burners used in Bacti.  They work just fine for
> embedding.  I have many times in my 33 years wanted a bunsen burner to do
> certain tasks, particularly when making Harris hematoxylin but I
> use a hot plate for that project.  It's a whole lot safer.
> I needed to vent this, because it does not make "common sense" to still embed
> with a bunsen burner.
>
> Thankyou, Marianne Osborne, HT(ASCP), HTL
>
> ers and incinerating burners they use in Bacti.  They work just fine for
> embedding.  They have many times in my 33 years of doing histology that I would
> have loved to have had a bunsen burner, particularly when
> hematoxylin, Harris.
> .




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