Diane,
Universal precautions still apply and it means you have to protect all mucous
membranes.  Generally, dispo lab coats, gloves, barrier protection of the nose
and face, yada, yada.  AND dispose of all as biological waste.  Fun.
Noreen Tuross
Quoting Diane O'Brien <[log in to unmask]>:

> Hello All!
>
>
>
> 'm planning a project involving the analysis of human red blood cells
> via EA-IRMS and TCEA-IRMS.  Human blood is a biohazard because of the
> risk of HIV, hepatitis, etc.  There are CDC protocols for dealing with
> human blood safely as a liquid, but none that I've seen so far for
> powdered samples.  Powder has a knack for getting everywhere...  and is
> hard to weigh out in a biosafety hood!
>
>
>
> I'm trying some tests with non-human blood at the moment, including
> autoclaving it prior to freezedrying, to see how C, N, O and H ratios
> are affected.  Still, I know that isotopes are commonly used in medical
> studies and I'm sure I'm not the first person to confront this problem.
>
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> Any leads?
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>
> Cheers,
>
> Diane O'Brien
>
> _______________________
>
> Institute of Arctic Biology
>
> P.O. Box 757000
>
> University of Alaska
>
> Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000
>
> Office  (907) 474 - 5762
>
> Lab (907) 474 - 6093
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.iab.uaf.edu/~diane_obrien/
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