>From what I understand if you require that an individual wear a N95 respirator when they are sectioning frozen sections then you are also required to have that respirator fit tested yearly.
We are a research lab that does quite a bit of work on TB samples. We do not section TB infected samples on a cryostat. All samples that we receive have been fixed in 10% NBF for several days and then transferred to 70% alcohol. When I was in a clinical lab, we would not section frozen sections of lung samples if they wanted to rule out TB, the pathologist would recommend to process to paraffin first. In fact since the samples are generated in a biosafety level 2 or 3 facility, they can not leave that facility unless the samples have been fixed and rendered non infectious. Frozen sections would need to be prepared within that biosafety facility with all of the appropriate PPE's in place. The University that we work with has tested these samples via culture after their fixation and alcohol procedure. We do however offer the N95 respirator to the techs and they can wear it if they want to, when they are grossing, embedding or sectioning these samples. But since it is voluntary we do not have to fit test, we have a specific procedure that covers this. This protocol has been developed with the help of our local OSHA rep. The other thing is we use a special vacumme with a hepa filter to vacume up the paraffin trimmings. OSHA has a program for small businesses and will work with them to make sure that they are within compliance, they have been very helpful to us here. Just go to the OSHA website. Liz Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC Manager Premier Laboratory, LLC PO Box 18592 Boulder, Colorado 80308 office (303) 682-3949 fax (303) 682-9060 www.premierlab.com Ship to Address: 1567 Skyway Drive, Unit E Longmont, Colorado 80504 -----Original Message----- From: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Tom McNemar Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 12:17 PM To: histo...@pathology.swmed.edu Subject: [Histonet] Cryostat decontamination... Hello all, We have always used absolute alcohol to decontaminate our cryostat and wondered what others use. This has been brought up by an article in the September issue of CAP Today that talks about biosafety when doing frozens (specifically talks about TB). As a related question, how many institutions require the wearing on an N95 respirator when doing frozens? The article states that diluted alcohol is more effective "because the presence of water causes proteins to denature more quickly." I just did the decontamination of our cryostat last weekend and used 70% alcohol as the article suggested. The alcohol evaporated and I was left with beads/drops of water that I had to then dry by hand. I guess the alternative would be is just to go over it again with aboslute after usiing 70%. The article goes on to recommend that personnel should wear N95 masks that are fit tested on a yearly basis. Thanks in advance. Tom McNemar, HT(ASCP) Histology Co-ordinator Licking Memorial Health Systems (740) 348-4163 (740) 348-4166 tmcne...@lmhealth.org www.LMHealth.org _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet