I'm sorry but I just can't resist this one. We have technicians working in 
our surgical pathology lab that have had or are dealing with cancer. The 
cancers these people have dealt with  and are dealing with are breast cancer, 
colon, kidney, uterine, ovarian, and abdominal cancer. Now I realize there 
are some "old" (don't take that literally) techs out there who have suffered 
no ill effects from chemical exposure. On the other hand, the folks in our 
surgical pathology department recently suffered the loss of our supervisor 
due to this vicious disease, cancer. Now, I'm not here to say the cancer came 
from formalin or any other chemical exposure but with her death and all the 
other techs in the department who have suffered with cancer, it certainly has 
raised mine and everyone else's awareness and made us realize that the threat 
of health effects are indeed very real. 
  Donna Barlow (HT, ASCP)
  Duke University Health System
  Durham, NC