[NHCOLL-L:3287] Re: Fluid Collection Issues

[CAHawks at aol.com]

Heath,
 
Using a 'sniff' test is a dangerous practice given that formaldehyde is a  
human carcinogen and isopropanol is toxic. 
 
Rob Waller of the Canadian Museum of Nature developed a test strip for  
distinguishing alcohol from formalin solutions and also worked on distinguishing  
among alcohols (_rwaller at mus-nature.ca_ (mailto:rwaller at mus-nature.ca) ). In 
addition,  there are standardized tests routinely used in chemistry to 
distinguish between  primary (ethanol) and secondary (isopropanol) alcohols. You can 
find these  tests by searching on Google.
 
Cathy Hawks
 
In a message dated 1/17/2007 2:34:44 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
heath.garner at ttu.edu writes:

 
Dear  all: 
We’re in the process of moving our  fluid-preserved and we’ve run across a 
couple of issues that I’m hoping others  have dealt with favorably. 
The first is that our fluid  collection consists of a mix of formalin, 
Ethanol, or Iso-propanol preserved  specimens. While at a later date we will likely 
transfer many of these  specimens to an Ethanol preserve, right now we only 
have time and resources to  top the jars off as we move them. Unfortunately, 
many of the older jars have  no indicator as to the preserving fluid. While I can 
certainly tell the  difference between formalin and an alcohol, it becomes 
hard to “smell” the  difference between Ethanol and Iso-propanol after your 
10th or  20th waft. Does anyone have any suggestions how to best tell the  
difference between Ethanol and Iso-propanol besides the smell  test? 
Also, we will be changing out the  lids on some of our older fluid collection 
jars and I was wondering whether or  not anyone has a recommendation as to 
which jar lid liner would be best to  use. We have been using a polypropylene 
lid with a polyethylene foam liner,  but are there thoughts on using Teflon 
faced PE liners or something different?  And do you have a company you prefer to 
order from (good deals on bulk sales,  etc)? 
Thanks in  advance! 
Cheers, 
Heath 
Heath J.  Garner 
Curator of  Collections 
Natural Science  Research Laboratory (NSRL) 
Museum of Texas Tech University 
3301 4th  Street 
Lubbock, TX 79409-3191 
voice: (806)  742-2486 
fax: (806)  742-0362 


 
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