Hexavalent
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Safety of pathogens
As well as chemistry, I also enjoy the odd bout of microscopy and microbiology. I have prepared a fair amount of my own slides, but looking for
something of higher quality, I selected these;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140622630044?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX...
and I choose the PS003 set (see item description). I have handled some microorganisms before on Petri dishes and just followed standard techniques.
This produced colonies of acceptable quality and was reasonable safe. However, my question is this; how much of a risk do these prepared slides pose?
Do I still need to follow proper procedures, e.g. disinfecting the worktop before and after using them, disinfecting the microscope stage and other
parts, wear a respirator mask etc??
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill
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zoombafu
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I'm pretty sure that these microorganisms will be dead, so I don't think you have to worry about them. Also here's a link on the preparation of
bacterial smear slides.
http://www.drcarman.info/bio251lb/10lab251.pdf
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Hexavalent
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That's what I thought - but you can never be too careful.
Silly question, but - do you think they will be stained? I presume so, but it would be a pain in the buttocks to have to do it myself if they weren't.
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill
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zoombafu
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Honestly I have no idea, but chances are they are stained. I haven't ever looked at 'prepared' slides that weren't.
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drwahab
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obviously an old thread...but for what it's worth my 2 cents are that they won't be stained
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confused
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so far all the prepared slides i've seen have been stained
if their using a stain, its probably dead, but theres no harm wiping down your workarea with ethanol once you're done, its a good habbit anyway
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Mailinmypocket
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Just in case anyone is interested, this thread reminded me that I have some slides for sale.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=22325
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confused
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as nice as they are, i dont have a microscope
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