RE: TSE Labs

From:Connie McManus

Carol,
 
I'm doing CWD --- this is our first season --- What I have done is the following:
    1)    Wear disposable lab coats (Safety Plus Products, 4123 Terminal Drive,Suite 210, MacFarland WI, 53558 sorry I don't have the phone/fax).
    2)    Wear nitrile gloves at all times
    3)    Microtome table is covered with disposable lab bench paper and changed daily
    4)    Use disposable blades and put in a sharps container
    5)    EVERYTHING --- paraffin shavings, lab coats, gloves, papers, EVERYTHING -- is put in a biohazard bag.  I purchased a tall kitchen waste can at a local store and use that for my biohazard can.  I use biohazard bags ordered from Fisher scientific to line it with.  This is emptied after each day of use.  I keep a red biohazard can with a step-on lever to open the lid.  I line this can with a red biohazard bag to put the waste biohazard bag in so I can take it all to the incinerator.  Inside the red can is considered clean, so there is nothing on the outside that can contaminate the area. 
    6) I use a disposable covered plastic food storage dish (Rubbermaid oblong dish) for my waterbath.  I put this in the regular waterbath, but the sections are floated only in this disposable dish.  When I'm finished cutting, I put the lid on this dish (which seals tightly) and put it in the waste biohazard bag, which prevents the water from leaking out of the biohazard bag on the way to the incinerator.
    7) I keep all deparafinzing, peroxidase blocking and concentrated formic acid pretreatments in a hood in the lab on a rubber mat.  I use paper toweling to surround the reagents and these are disposed of at day's end.
 
Hope this helps!  good luck
 
Connie McManus
Utah Verinary Diagnostics Lab
Utah State University
Logan, UT
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Dudecare@aol.com [mailto:Dudecare@aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 7:36 AM
To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: TSE Labs

Hi All!!

I'm hoping someone out there can help me.  We are in the process of setting up a histology lab that will be dedicated solely to checking for CWD in brain tissue, and I'd love to brainstorm with others who work in labs that deal with the prion diseases.  Specifically I'm interested in some of the safety equipment, suppliers, as well as any good tips for easier sectioning of brain tissue post-fixation in formic acid.

If anyone out there is currently working with this tissue, and wouldn't mind answering a few questions, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!!

Carol Oyaas, HT
Dudecare@aol.com
University of MN
Veterinary Diagnostic Labs

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