[F32Fleet]

Q for MD and DDS. When practicing medicine did you have an autoclave and if so did you use ethylene oxide?

[upstatedoc]

I don't go anywhere near the autoclave

[King Rudi]

Former tattoo artist. Very familiar with the autoclave. At no point did we ever use EO. Most likely, due to it not being required in that environment at that time. The regulations may have changed in the past 20 years though.

[Reborn_]

I’m familiar with both (medical device engineering). What is your question? Generally reusable instruments will use autoclave (steam).

[383vett]

I've been autoclaving for 40 years in my dental office. Ethylene oxide is pretty toxic stuff and does not clean the insides of handpieces adequately. It is easier on the instruments and does not cause rust.

[F32Fleet]

Thanks gents. I was curious. My hometown has a few retired dentists and MD's who are of similar age and who've all developed Parkinson's. I was trying to think of some commonality.

[vreihen16]

Test the water at the nearest golf course?????

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Test the water at the nearest golf course?????

??

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by F32Fleet

??

Some of the doctors and dentists that I personally know play golf. The ground water near golf courses in these parts is tainted with years of fertilizer, weed killer, algaecide, etc.

Do they all use the same medical laundry service? Could it be a cleaning agent or sterilizing agent that they use on their garments and stuff?????

[overcoil]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Some of the doctors and dentists that I personally know play golf. The ground water near golf courses in these parts is tainted with years of fertilizer, weed killer, algaecide, etc.

Do they all use the same medical laundry service? Could it be a cleaning agent or sterilizing agent that they use on their garments and stuff?????

But wouldn’t accountants and lawyers and club workers have similar ailments? Or do they.

[DocL]

I used to sterilize instruments for my father in the 1980's and I have been sterilizing my instruments since 1996. I have never used anything besides distilled water in a steam autoclave.

I do know that some older dentists used to place amalgam in their hands, without gloves, using mercury. That exposure could definitely lead to Parkinson's.

[Littlebear]

The animal hospital I worked at used distilled water in the autoclave.

Murf

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Some of the doctors and dentists that I personally know play golf. The ground water near golf courses in these parts is tainted with years of fertilizer, weed killer, algaecide, etc.

Do they all use the same medical laundry service? Could it be a cleaning agent or sterilizing agent that they use on their garments and stuff?????

Ahh yes, well my town doesn't use wells. I don't know about their history. They're all in their 70's.

[vreihen16]

Our town has an EPA superfund site that used to be a large uniform/garment laundry service in the region. There's a lot of stuff that was in common use in the not-so-distant past that we've learned isn't good for us.....

[CajunBMW]

Originally Posted by Soul_Glo

CajunBMW

We use the autoclave all the time. No EO is ever used. We autoclave biohazardous waste all the time. This includes a variety of viruses and bacteria. SARS-CoV-2 included as well, we also use the autoclave to clean up waste from BSL-3 facilities. We also use it to sterilize reusable items for work in our CoV diagnostic lab as well as our own viral infection research labs.

[Maynard]

Are they Veterans? The VA has much improved surveillance (and, if affected, service connected treatments) for many environmental exposures. Military bases were not governed by all those pesky environmental regulations, and there is growing awareness of fairly widespread exposure to PCB's, benzene, heavy metals, etc. Also a lot of this stuff in older medical/dental world (formaldehyde and organic solvents, radiation, lead/mercury, etc). IIRC, parkinsonian symptoms are often linked to the types of organic chemicals that are common in agriculture and industry, so the 'what is in the water' is a very real question - even with a central water supply, lots of that stuff can come right thru typical treatment systems.

[CajunBMW]

Originally Posted by Maynard

Are they Veterans? The VA has much improved surveillance (and, if affected, service connected treatments) for many environmental exposures. Military bases were not governed by all those pesky environmental regulations, and there is growing awareness of fairly widespread exposure to PCB's, benzene, heavy metals, etc. Also a lot of this stuff in older medical/dental world (formaldehyde and organic solvents, radiation, lead/mercury, etc). IIRC, parkinsonian symptoms are often linked to the types of organic chemicals that are common in agriculture and industry, so the 'what is in the water' is a very real question - even with a central water supply, lots of that stuff can come right thru typical treatment systems.

That is correct. Old dental offices, just like old pathology labs and research labs used lost of organic compounds, formaldehyde, mercury , etc. some of this is nasty stuff and if used appropriately in a fume hood and in the presence of proper ventilation it would be ok, but I am sure in many of these older places that was ignored and then it is certainly possible that bad things could have happened. There was another sad note about dentists and lung disease that I read because of the same idea. I can't remember where I read that last point.

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by Maynard

Are they Veterans? The VA has much improved surveillance (and, if affected, service connected treatments) for many environmental exposures. Military bases were not governed by all those pesky environmental regulations, and there is growing awareness of fairly widespread exposure to PCB's, benzene, heavy metals, etc. Also a lot of this stuff in older medical/dental world (formaldehyde and organic solvents, radiation, lead/mercury, etc). IIRC, parkinsonian symptoms are often linked to the types of organic chemicals that are common in agriculture and industry, so the 'what is in the water' is a very real question - even with a central water supply, lots of that stuff can come right thru typical treatment systems.

Good question. I know of only one who about five years ago was contacted by the VA to inform him that he was eligible for service connected disability (Agent Orange).

[RedScytheM3]

Originally Posted by F32Fleet

Thanks gents. I was curious. My hometown has a few retired dentists and MD's who are of similar age and who've all developed Parkinson's. I was trying to think of some commonality.

Search pubmed.gov to see if there's any research linking the 2. If there's research there, you can read up on it. If not, we probably don't know.

[CajunBMW]

Originally Posted by RedScytheM3

Search pubmed.gov to see if there's any research linking the 2. If there's research there, you can read up on it. If not, we probably don't know.

+1 - Pubmed is definitely a good resource.