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.