Re: Collodion: What is it good for?

[John C White <ohjcw@utxdp.dp.utexas.edu>]

Date: Thu, 26 Oct 95 09:03:02 -0500
Errors-To: melissa@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
Reply-To: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
Sender: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
From: mozley@darius.pet.upenn.edu (P. David Mozley, M.D.)
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Collodion: What is it good for?

I remember from my days in Nuclear Medicine that we stocked collodion for
removing spills from surfaces where wiping wouldn't do.  The collodion would
be poured or brushed on, allowed to dry, then peeled off.
John C. White RSO
The University of Texas at Austin
OHJCW@UTXDP.DP.UTEXAS.EDU


As I recall from my childhood, collodion is an over the counter
dermatological for drying the skin.  It was commonly applied to rashes from
poison ivy.  But it came as a lotion, not a solution, so if your language
is precise, we are talking apples and oranges.  The issue in medicine is
now moot because we use potent corticoid creams.

Maybe the idea of including the lotion in your kit was to draw topically
absorbed radionuclides into the "base" as if they were fat soluable
antigens, but this is just a wild guess.  You certainly would not want to
put that stuff on a radiation burn.

But all this is off the point.  If you don't know what the intended outcome
of a therapuetic maneuver is, if you don't have experience using it, you
are never going to employ it in practice.  Primum non coerce, eh dude?

mozley


>        Has anyone a clue what collodion would be used for in a radiation
>safety program?  We were looking through our collection of solvents/reagents
>a while ago, and found about a half-liter of this.
>
>        For those wondering what collodion is, it seems to be a solution
>of nitrocellulose in ether (unopened), so oxygen decomposition  products
>are a secondary consideration.
>
>        We do not have an immediate use for this material, but if there
>is a valid use for this in the context of sample preperation, analysis,
>etc., maybe we can use it, rather than dispose of it.
>Don Price                       dprice@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu