Date sent:      	Sat, 6 May 2000 21:58:28 -0500
From:           	"Bryan Llewellyn" <bryand@netbistro.com> (by way of Histonet)
Subject:        	Re: Skin problems?
To:             	HistoNet@pathology.swmed.edu

> This subject is hardly ever mentioned in texts or lectures, but is actually
> quite well known.  Wearing gloves would stop a lot of it but not all.
> Squames also fall from facial skin and the hair.  Before sectioning I
> usually scrub my hands, including the back and between fingers, with a stiff
> brush, soap and warm water.  This usually gets rid of most of it.

I see this periodically and it gets worse the more you have to 
manipulate slides when picking up sections. Some slides that do 
not have very good ground edges tend to scrape the skin and leave 
an epithelial "deposit" around the slide edge which becomes dried 
onto the glass.If we are producing slides that require more than the 
average number of sections/slide manipulation and of course for 
mRNA in-situ then we do wear gloves.
Brian, scrubbing your back, isn't that a bit excessive!