Mike Kirby in Johannesburg asks:

>>Does anyone have any plans or can make recommendations with regards to a

suitable formalin fume extraction system for our "gross sectioning bench"? I

am sure that there are commercial systems available, but they would be

extremely expensive in this neck of the woods, so what we are looking for is

a "in house" D.I.Y system.<<

Real men choke on the fumes while they gross! Fume extraction systems? We
don't have no sissy fume extraction systems!

The answer to this question depends very much on your local regulatory
agencies. In the USA we have federal regulations concerning formaldehyde
fumes, but many states - including the states I practice in - do not enforce
them.

Most of the small rural hospitals and "little histology labs on the prairie
[or is that veldt?]" that I practice in have nothing at all, or nothing but a
fan so noisy you can't dictate with it running.

In such a circumstance, your best strategy is careful handling of
formaldehyde so as to expose as little of it as possible. And an electric fan
purchased at your nearest department store.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
(still surviving the fumes at age sixty)
Knoxville, Tennessee USA