I just recently did a lot of research into the different hoods. I decided the down draft was not going to work for us since we like to place absorbant towels down to catch the xylene while coverslipping. I decided to purchase one that a high CFM (Air flow rate), low decibles and a monitor on the filter to let one know when the filter was saturated and needed to be changed. And I wanted the sash that comes down in front of your face to be glass, so that we could clean it periodically with xylene to get splashes of mounting media off. For the money PurAir was very good... body was plastic and the clear part that is lowered while in use was plastic. It had good CFM, good decible level and a monitor for filter saturation. The LabConco is stainless steel and glass, with good CFM, decible level and a monitor for filter saturation. The problem with the little Shandon is that the CFM is about 30 at max when the sash is lowered. Newer ones, such as the PurAir and Labconco have about 120+ CFM. And the Shandon has no monitor for filter saturation. The PurAir had the footprint needed for cytology, which is very small in my area. There is another company that was good, but my brain cells cannot recall the info. If anyone wants more info, please e-mail me. In a message dated 8/16/2010 12:01:08 P.M. Central Daylight Time, rjbu...@yahoo.com writes:
Try to get a fume hood; it could be one movible over the counter, but needs to have a good charcoal filter. René J. --- On Mon, 8/16/10, cathy.crump...@tuality.org <cathy.crump...@tuality.org> wrote: From: cathy.crump...@tuality.org <cathy.crump...@tuality.org> Subject: [Histonet] xylene in an unventilated area To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Date: Monday, August 16, 2010, 11:41 AM Hello all. Cytology was told that the xylene substitute the= y were using for their Surepath paps was causing staining/artifact issues.& nbsp; They want to switch to using xylene in their area, but it is unventil= ated. Because of various reasons, their process can not be moved.&nbs= p; They are asking me for advice about what to do for fume control. I= was wondering if a good downdraft unit would be enough to handle the xylen= e fumes. They will have maybe 400 mL of xylene uncovered while covers= lipping their paps. Does anyone else have a similar set up? The= y share their area with micro and core lab and others are complaining about= fumes even though they have borrowed a mini-hood from us. Badge resu= lts are still pending. Cathy Crumpton HT(ASC= P), Histology Lead Tuality Community Hospital Hillsboro, OR 97123 = (503)681-1292 _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet