Specimen ethics

[JGardner]

When I'm done with a slide, everything goes into a bucket filled with IPA. After a week or two in the bucket I pour off the alcohol ...

Ah but do you drink it ?

No. IPA = isopropyl alcohol, not India Pale Ale.

[Hobbyst46]

When I'm done with a slide, everything goes into a bucket filled with IPA. After a week or two in the bucket I pour off the alcohol and toss the slides/coverslips in the trash.

I would avoid having any container of IPA that is not hermetically closed. Alcohol vapors are not toxic but are harmful. So I have learnt.

Please elaborate, as most IPA is now sold in plastic bottles and there is always a very faint smell.

The MSDS of IPA states that it should be kept in a tightly closed container. And that inhalation of the vapors may cause health problems. And for health and safety reasons should be stored in a ventilated area. IMO the simple plastic bottle from the store is OK as long as the plastic lid is tightly screwed. Albeit, the sensitivity to smell varies widely among persons. BTW, I apply the same rules to ethyl alcohol 95%.

[deBult]

Tnx will move the large bottles to the cellar and keep a set of small ones with the alcohol(s), cleaner etc. for daily use in an extra closed box.

[JGardner]

BTW, I apply the same rules to ethyl alcohol 95%.

I wonder how much ethyl alcohol vapor is in the air in a typical bar? It's probably significant.

[Charles]

So I guess you go to a bar, you just drink the liquor and not sniff it,especially the 151...

[wporter]

A big reason why isopropyl alcohol should be kept in a tightly closed container is that it is very hygroscopic, at least until it dilutes itself down to 65% (35% water).

[75RR]

A big reason why isopropyl alcohol should be kept in a tightly closed container is that it is very hygroscopic, at least until it dilutes itself down to 65% (35% water).

Now that is useful info.

[DonSchaeffer]

--Withdrawn--

[75RR]

Religious Civil Law

MicrobeHunter is a microscopy forum and its rules viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4193 require that all posts be microscopy related.

[DrPhoxinus]

I knew a grad student who was thrown out a research lab because she was releasing lab Paramecium into the wild.
That is a mortal sin.

Lab was working on Paramecium / Didinium predator prey dynamics, using Protoslo

stock photo attached

[MichaelG.]

Lab was working on Paramecium / Didinium predator prey dynamics, using Protoslo

.

Useful link to a previous discussion about Protoslo :
viewtopic.php?t=4419

MichaelG.

[daruosha]

That's a very nice implemented picture.

[JGardner]

The MSDS of IPA states that it should be kept in a tightly closed container. And that inhalation of the vapors may cause health problems. And for health and safety reasons should be stored in a ventilated area. IMO the simple plastic bottle from the store is OK as long as the plastic lid is tightly screwed. Albeit, the sensitivity to smell varies widely among persons. BTW, I apply the same rules to ethyl alcohol 95%.

I happen to believe in prudent precautions in the use of chemicals rather than absolute avoidance. I also believe in treating chemicals according to their known heath effects, which is why I treat benzene completely differently than I treat ethanol (I avoid benzene entirely and treat ethanol with just a little more caution than I treat water--after all, my great grandfather consumed literally hundreds of gallons of the stuff over 96 years without any apparent adverse effect. )

I also feel that amateur science has been the victim of the trend towards safety at all costs. Back when I was a kid in the 1960s we had real chemistry sets, with chemicals like potassium dichromate, chrome alum, and others. Lots of neighborhood kids had these sets and I don't recall anyone dying, getting injured, or growing a second head. Now chemistry sets contain little more than vinegar, sodium bicarbonate, and sodium chloride. Are we doing our kids a service by shielding them in this way? I don't think so.

In California we have something called Proposition 65, which was a ballot initiative passed several years back that requires warning labels on anything that might cause cancer. The law provided for fines for businesses that didn't label something that might cause cancer, but no fine for labeling something as causing cancer that actually doesn't. As a result, businesses play it safe and put the warning label on practically everything. Indeed, the state of California has determined that everything causes cancer. The warning is effectively worthless.

People nowadays are deathly afraid of getting the slightest whiff of xylene or formaldehyde lest they wake up with cancer the next day. Sure, if you work in a factory eight hours a day using these chemicals, you should be concerned, but if you occasionally use a little xylene to clean a lens you are not going to drop dead the next day.