WE ALSO DISPOSE OF OUR BLOCKS WITH THE BIOHAZARD WASTE. NO OTHER SPECIAL
HANDLING.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Nocito, Joseph [SMTP:joseph_nocito@srhc.iwhs.org]
> Sent:	Tuesday, January 04, 2000 11:10 AM
> To:	'RSRICHMOND@aol.com'; histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject:	RE: Disposal of paraffin blocks
>
> We throw ours in the biohazard bags and have them incinerated
>
> Joe Nocito, B.S., HT(ASCP)QIHC
> Histology Supervisor
> Christus Santa Rosa Hospitals
> San Antonio, Texas
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	RSRICHMOND@aol.com [SMTP:RSRICHMOND@aol.com]
> > Sent:	Tuesday, January 04, 2000 9:37 AM
> > To:	histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> > Subject:	Re:  Disposal of paraffin blocks
> >
> > Cathy De Viney asks:
> >
> > >>How do you dispose of your old paraffin blocks? Regular trash or
> > biohazardous trash?<<
> >
> > I've never seen anyone address this issue, but I would regard them as
> > biohazardous trash.
> >
> > First, at least theoretically, some etiologic agents (such as prions,
> the
> > supposed Jakob-Creutzfeldt agent) can survive in them.
> >
> > Second, because they should be disposed of - preferably incinerated -
> > where
> > nobody can get at them. They're the sort of thing kids will retrieve out
> > of a
> > Dumpster and play with (I did worse things myself when I was a kid!)
> >
> > I'm not sure that anyone should be disposing of paraffin blocks these
> > days,
> > with the rapidly expanding use of molecular techniques in pathology.
> >
> > >>Answers need not clutter this list.<< This topic very much belongs on
> > this
> > open list.
> >
> > >>am asking this question on behalf of our histotechs, because they do
> not
> >
> > have access to the internet<< Appalling but true - in most of the little
>
> > hospitals I work in, it's a major achievement just to get the histotechs
> a
> >
> > copy of Freida Carson's book. Only the suits and their
> dressed-for-success
> >
> > secretaries have Internet access. And it doesn't look like that's going
> to
> >
> > change in my remaining years in pathology.
> >
> > Bob Richmond
> > Samurai Pathologist
> > Knoxville TN