Lesli Armstrong makes a very good point in her message about PI. I wish you all the best Leslie as you deal with this traumatic situation. One thing that I have stressed over the years, is that when you are sorting with PI or any fluorochrome for that matter, you could be exposing yourself to PI in the aerosol. I think this is a very good reason to re-evaluate sorting procedures. Although we have discussed this for years, it has encouraged me to go take another look at this issue. Best wishes paul robinson Purdue University On 16 Jan 2002, at 10:05, Leslie Armstrong-Lea wrote: Hi, Seeing these posts about safety precautions to be used while pregnant and working in flow cytometry prompted me to send a word of caution to ALL flow cytometrists, pregnant or not. We all need to be careful when using toxic, carcinogenic, pathologic, etc. samples or chemicals. We tend to get so used to working with this stuff, that I think we forget to respect the potential hazards. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year, and although the only "known" cause of thyroid cancer is radiation exposure (which I have not had), the nuclear medicine doctor that administered my ablative dose of I131 following my surgery was curious about my exposure to propidium iodide for 15 years. Even though it is not supposed to be taken up by live tissue,, he did wonder if it could cause thyroid cancer, as the thyroid has such an affinity for iodine of any sort. I don't know if anyone would have any answers to this, but I just wanted to make sure everyone, not just pregnant ladies, respects the warnings to use caution when dealing with dyes, chemicals, body fluids, etc. Be safe out there!! ==================================== Leslie Armstrong-Lea Radiological Health Sciences (RHS) Colorado State University Ft. Collins, CO 80523-1673, USA voice:(970)491-1347 fax:(970)491-0623 leslie.armstrong-lea@colostate.edu ==================================== J.Paul Robinson, PhD PH:(765)4940757 Professor of Immunopharmacology Professor of Biomedical Engineering Purdue University FAX:(765)4940517 EMAIL:jpr@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu WEB: http://www.cyto.purdue.edu
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