John Kiernan is right on.  Its maddening, isn't it, to have to comply with
so much of the regulatory nonsense that we are plagued with, and have it be
so useless as an MSDS that doesn't warn of the real dangers.  Who dreams
this wasteful stuff up? Are these OSHA and JCAHO standards and statutes
reviewed periodically as they mandate we review ourselves?
Jeff Silverman
Southampton Hospital (Still) NY USA
peptolab@hamptons.com

----------
> From: J. A. Kiernan <jkiernan@julian.uwo.ca>
> To: Alex Brown <AlexB@nayrshire.scot.nhs.uk>
> Cc: 'Histonet' <Histonet@pathology.swmed.edu>
> Subject: Re: MSDS sheets and the Curse of Schiff
> Date: Tuesday, October 06, 1998 2:31 PM
>
> On Tue, 6 Oct 1998, Alex Brown wrote:
>
> > 	I've been reviewing our COSHH Risk Assessments for a forthcoming
> > CPA visit and have discovered we don't have one for Schiff's reagent .
> > We buy it ready made from BDH and the bottle doesn't have any hazard or
> > warning symbols on it. I'm finding it hard to believe that Schiff's
> > reagent isn't hazardous to some degree, so would appreciate any
> > comments.
>
>   When I buy a bottle of ready-made Schiff, it comes with several
>   pages of MSDS sheets: for basic fuchsine, hydrochloric acid and
>   sodium metabisulphite. These are completely consumed when
>   the reagent is made, so it doesn't actually contain any of these
>   substances (except possibly a slight excess of dilute hydrochloric
>   acid). There is no mention of the sulphur dioxide fumes, and not
>   even a hint about the greatest hazard, which is the deposition
>   of purple stains on everone and everything accidentally touched
>   by the colourless liquid.
>                              John Kiernan
>                              London, Canada.
>
>