Carole L Johnson, HT(ASCP)cm, QIHC(ASCP)cm at UCH/Memorial Central Hospital in Colorado Springs asks:
>>We have been using ethanol in our lab and would like to change to using reagent alcohol for the obvious reasons of cost and regulatory headaches. I have been tasked with creating a validation/verification process. Does anyone have any suggestions? Or better yet, information proving that we can make the change without going through an extensive project?<< What's commonly called reagent alcohol in histology is 90% ethanol, 5% methanol, and 5% isopropanol. BATF calls this "SD3 modified" (regulation SD3 is denatured only with methanol). You sometimes see a different denaturant, methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), but it smells so bad most labs don't use it. Alcohol denatured with acetone is also available, and is NOT suitable for histologic use (it removes the eosin in the dehydration sequence). The proposal is to replace absolute ethanol, in order to avoid the nuisance of complying with BATF regulations on potentially drinkable alcohol. I've never seen a practical problem with this changeover. I have no idea what the regulatory issues might be. Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Maryville TN _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
