formalin in the Operating Room

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Specializes in OR,ER,med/surg,SCU.

Has OSHA stated that formalin is not to be taken into the operating room? AORN states they follow the OSHA recommendations. Has anyone else been hearing anything on this?

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Several years ago, we removed all of our formalin jars from inside the ORs; they are now kept in a drawer in each subroom that is not allowed to hold any other supplies.

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Ours are kept in the substerile between rooms and only brought in to collect a specimen.

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Has OSHA stated that formalin is not to be taken into the operating room? AORN states they follow the OSHA recommendations. Has anyone else been hearing anything on this?

We have a tissue room. It's basically a closet with specimen containers, lab slips, formalin, and a plastic bin to put specimens in. We don't keep any formalin in the suites or substeriles.

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As of about 2 weeks ago, we were told we cant keep formalin in our rooms anymore.

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We used to for TA, but the container dropped one day and now we don't keep formalin in the room in large quantities. We do keep the small specimen collection containers that are pre-filled with it. We filled the larger containers at a specimen station.

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