Individuals who participated in dissection (vs. prosection or combined) had higher personal
FA exposure levels. At the 2 sites with the highest levels of personal FA exposure (sites A and D), 5 donor cabinets were open during lab sessions (Table 3). At the other dissection-based site (site E) where personal FA exposure was lower, only 3 donor cabinets were open during lab sessions. Even though at site E the embalming solution contained a higher percentage of FA and the ventilation rates were similar to site A, the exposure levels were less (Tables 1 and 3).
Site C had the lowest mean personal exposure to FA of any site surveyed. There are
characteristics of this site that may contribute to reducing personal FA exposure levels,
including: being housed at a large medical school’s anatomy laboratory with access to an EHS department that is regularly involved in FA monitoring of this laboratory; highest ventilation rate; a small number of donors (3 or 4) during laboratory sessions; and prosection- based laboratory sessions (Tables 1 and 3).