Criostat Cleaning and Safety. Welcoming suggestions. - I need to post general Criostat Safety and Cleaning Instructions. (Jul/23/2008 )

Hello everyone.

We have recently acquired a criostat and the safety rules are not in place yet (besides the obvious of not running your finger against the blade).
I am open to suggestions, particularly in respects to cleaning this machine.
(and yes, I did read the instructions, the manual was of little help in this matter).

Thank you all

Alejandro

I haven't used one for a while, but the main rule I think is to clean it after every session, and if it has had human tissue on it (especially brain) then fumigate it with formaldehyde gas to inactivate any transmissible diseases.

yup - cleaned after every session - drill it into the users head - if they dont, ban em for a week.
unlike a microtome the blades can usually stay in (leave a wide brush in the machine together with a razor blade (you know the half covered ones) for removing excess oct))

only let people use it who have been taught and approved by someone you trust

dom

its oct not dpx - too many transparant goo's for one guy to remember

Thank you!
How do you prepare the formaldehyde gas? Do you have a standardized protocol?
(as you can see, the "instruction" manual is very slim.

Regarding penalization of bad usage:

I´ve set up a two card system (football based);
Users must be "certified" (by me only).
The first error (like not cleaning) is a yellow card, the second earns them a red card (they loose certification and must wait for me to get around to certifying them again).
Reporting problems will not result in penalization of the user (unless they generated the error through disregard of usage rules).
Uncertified users (aka. infractors) caught using the criostat, get a 6 month delay in certification (they can go and look somewhere else for equipment). Red Card: Repetition voids their lab mates certification and earns them a letter to their adviser. Black Card: The person wont learn, I shut the access to all users not from my lab and send a letter to the Department Head.
(I bought the equipment with my grant, I am not forced to lend it to anyone. I can be a
bastard if it suits the interests of my lab).