Allison Hutton, HTL(ASCP)cm, Lead Tech Histology, Doylestown Hospital, Doylestown, Pennsylvania asks:
>>For those of you who are using Formula 83, could you please contact me off >>line? We have completed our demo but still have a few questions.<< Formula 83, offered by CBG Biotech Ltd., is a napthenic (cycloalkane) hydrocarbon used as a xylene substitute. It differs in structure from the aliphatic hydrocarbons such as Richard Allan's Clear-rite 3. It's in use in a lab I'm working in at the moment. I have two reservations about it. The first is that, unlike the aliphatics, it has a definite odor, which could be objectionable in a confined space. The second reservation: Formula 83 has a flash point of only 7 degrees Fahrenheit, lower than xylene (78 degrees) and other aliphatics, some of which have flash points as high as 144 F. The fire hazard here is worth considering. Formula 83 has been discussed before on Histonet, and the posts are worth looking up. When purchasing a new aliphatic, there are several important considerations. Your purchasing people need to understand that they can't change the xylene substitute on you, just because something a bit cheaper comes along. If you recycle, every different xylene substitute has a different distillation routine. It's important to ask everyone in the lab - in particular, the cytotechnologist is likely to have very strong opinions about the solvents they use in their ascending sequence before coverslipping. Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Knoxville TN _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet