Dear histonetters. I wonder if
anyone could share with me the way they deal with slippery floors in
the paraffin sectioning area. The story is like this. Somebody
from another lab entered our paraffin sectioning room (waxed vinyl flooring)
in a pair of leather shoes. She slipped. We are not sure how
it happened because none of us was there. Was the accident caused
by a little bit of spilt water on the floor, high heel leahter shoes or
what? The safety officer of our department got the report and wanted to
prevent such things from happening again. He believed that the
slippery floor was caused by wax trimmings that had fallen off
the bench-top onto the the floor. In fact, long time age there was an
article in a British journal supporting this view. (The solution in the
article, as far as I can remember vaguely, is the replacement of vinyl with
textile type of flooring, but maintenance could be a problem). He
also worried that tiny bits of wax trimmings could be carried on our lab
coats to other places in the department. Our department wanted us to
submit some suggestions within 2 months to prevent similar
accidents. So, what do you think? In the meantime, we try to
keep the floor dry at all times, clean the bench of wax
trimmings 2-3 times during and after sectioning, and put up warning
signs around our 'slippery sectioning area'. However, our department
wants further suggestions and they may be willing to pay for a change of the
flooring. But of course, we don't want to make dumb suggestions that
waste money before the cause of the accident is clear. Any of your
suggestions would be a great help to us. Recommendations from
specialist in laboratory deisgn and flooring are also welcome. Thanks in
advance.
Helen Lam
Hong
Kong