John KIernan asks why I _routinely_ buy hacksaws.

>>Good on yer, Bob! But why do you _routinely_ buy hacksaws? I've had the 
same one for about 25 years. I don't use it a lot, and only on wood, plastic 
and the occasional bit of metal, but this week it's still doing well on its 
second  blade. Are femora so tough that they wear out the frame?<<

Small hacksaws are cheap, usually about US$5. I leave them behind at locum 
tenens jobs, because I don't want to carry a large contaminated sharp object 
in my car where I'll probably eventually cut myself on it. - I just took one 
to the Cayman Islands and left it there. I was just a LITTLE worried about 
getting caught with it in my suitcase, but the inspectors never looked.

Thanks for the explanation of bis-chloromethylether. I'm sure now that it was 
your note about it I read on Histonet several years ago, but I didn't archive 
it at the time - I have now.

While we're at it - is there any "formaldehyde neutralizer" that is anything 
more than wishful thinking? - One of my locum tenens clients has just bought 
a formaldehyde recycler - from B/R stills I think - even though they have no 
one with the time to operate it, and no place to put it. Nobody in the lab 
has ever heard of glyoxal.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN