Should we totally ban bleach in the Blood Bank to avoid destruction of the S antigen?  We have some scut buckets to which we add bleach as a disinfectant and I can't decide how much I should worry that a splash will end up somewhere that it could affect the S antigen in a test.  It seems fairly remote but if it happened on a patient with an undetected anti-S it would be bad. If I could find a suitable alternative to add to the scut buckets, then I could switch to that and not have to wonder.  

 

If you don't use bleach in your scut buckets what do you add in hopes of killing viruses etc.?

lysol works, but bleach is best

used to use phenol, but too many rats developed cancer from it, soooooooooooo had to get rid of it.

_{What is in your scut buckets, Test Tubes, Segments, Decanted saline from manual tube washing?  Are these buckets on the countertop or undercounter?}

Edited November 26, 201311 yr by Dansket

We have a Helmer Ultra Cell Washer that includes using diluted bleach on the tubing as part of the weekly maintenance....

The scut buckets are for decanted saline from washing.  They have a cup or two of dilute bleach in them.  They are on the workstation counters. Segments tubes etc. go into biohazard waste.

We too, use bleach for monthly maintenance on the cell washers. But for the drains we got the plumbing guys to put little drain sinks in the counter for each cell washer. Works great. I

We have small buckets on the benches (never heard the term scut bucket before, but I like it). They are lined with a red bag and covered. They usually fill up in just a day or three. We just lift out the bag, tie it shut, and place it in a larger biohazard container. No disenfectant in it at all. No problems.

Maybe placing the bucket behind a plastic shield would do the trick.  If I was worried about the bleach contaminating a tube, I might be worried it would also be splashing into my tech's face or eyes.

 

Jeanne