Author
Sandra Cummings
Vice PresidentCommercial Operations & Business Development
Risks at the Grossing Lab:
Why Safety in Histology Starts Before the Slide
In most histology labs, safety conversations tend to center on regulated chemicals, formaldehyde exposure limits, or personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance. These are all critical concerns. But one of the most persistent and underestimated sources of risk sits in plain sight: the grossing bench.
Grossing is where tissue is cut, examined, and prepared for downstream processing. It is also where sharp instruments, biological material, chemicals, and airflow intersect in a confined space. As workloads increase and turnaround expectations tighten, this convergence creates a risk profile that labs cannot afford to treat as background noise.Recent safety data underscores what many histology professionals already know intuitively: grossing is one of the most injury-prone activities in the lab.
Sharps Risk is a Grossing Problem
Across U.S. healthcare settings, an estimated 385,000 needlestick and sharps-related injuries occur each year among hospital-based personnel—and many go unreported. Within the laboratory, more than half of the reported cut-related injuries occur during grossing or autopsy, placing grossing activities at the center of sharps risk.
Compounding the issue, over 50% of sharps injuries are never reported, often due to time pressure, reporting friction, or a perception that the injury was low risk. Underreporting obscures true exposure rates and limits a lab's ability to make informed safety interventions.
At the bench, repetitive scalpel use, specimen variability, and manual positioning all increase the likelihood of cuts. These are not edge cases—they are inherent characteristics of the work.Chemical Exposure Is Not Just a Ventilation Issue
Chemical exposure is frequently treated as a facilities or compliance problem, but its impact is felt most directly at the grossing station.
Data indicates that approximately 39% of reported laboratory incidents involve chemical spills, and more than half of histopathology workers report symptoms associated with chemical exposure, including headaches, sore throat, and respiratory irritation.Ventilation systems play a central role here, yet performance gaps are common. Roughly 20% of fume hoods fail to meet ANSI/ASSP laboratory ventilation standards, and airflow can decrease by 20-50% when filters are not properly monitored. These issues often go unnoticed until symptoms surface or an inspection forces correction.
The result is a disconnect between perceived safety controls and actual exposure conditions at the bench.
The Overlooked Role of Workflow Design
When grossing incidents are reviewed in isolation, the focus typically falls on individual behavior; improper hand positioning, missed PPE, or a momentary lapse. But taken together, the data points to a broader issue—grossing safety is inseparable from workflow and infrastructure design.
Key contributors include:- Bench layout that forces awkward movements or hand crossings.
- Inadequate separation of sharps, specimens, and chemical handling zones.
- Ventilation performance assumed rather than verified.
- Time pressure that discourages incident reporting or pause-and-correct behavior.
Why Grossing Safety Deserves Strategic Attention
Grossing is often treated as a technical step—necessary, but routine. In reality, it is a foundational control point in histology operations. Failures here affect not only staff safety, but also specimen integrity, turnaround time, and downstream quality.
As labs face higher volumes, staffing constraints, and increasing scrutiny around worker safety, grossing environments deserve the same strategic attention given to automation, imaging, and workflow optimization elsewhere in the lab.
That starts with acknowledging a simple truth: where risk concentrates, leadership attention must follow.
Safety at the gross bench is not a peripheral issue. It is an operational responsibility—and one that directly impacts people every day.
Author
Sandra Cummings, HT (ASCP)
Vice PresidentCommercial Operations & Business Development
Risks at the Grossing Bench:
Why Safety in Histology Starts Before the Slide
In most histology labs, safety conversations tend to center on regulated chemicals, formaldehyde exposure limits, or personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance. These are all critical concerns. But one of the most persistent and underestimated sources of risk sits in plain sight: the grossing bench.
Grossing is where tissue is first handled, cut, examined, and prepared for downstream processing. It is also where sharp instruments, biological material, chemicals, and airflow intersect in a confined space. As workloads increase and turnaround expectations tighten, this convergence creates a risk profile that labs cannot afford to treat as background noise.Recent safety data underscores what many histology professionals already know intuitively: grossing is one of the most injury‑prone activities in the lab.
Sharps Risk is a Grossing Problem
Across U.S. healthcare settings, an estimated 385,000 needlestick and sharps‑related injuries occur each year among hospital‑based personnel—and many go unreported. Within the laboratory, more than half of reported cut‑related injuries occur during grossing or autopsy, placing grossing activities at the center of sharps risk.
Compounding the issue, over 50% of sharps injuries are never reported, often due to time pressure, reporting friction, or a perception that the injury was low risk. Underreporting obscures true exposure rates and limits a lab’s ability to make informed safety interventions.
At the bench, repetitive scalpel use, specimen variability, and manual positioning all increase the likelihood of cuts. These are not edge cases—they are inherent characteristics of the work.Chemical Exposure is Not Just a Ventilation Issue
Chemical exposure is frequently treated as a facilities or compliance problem, but its impact is felt most directly at the grossing station.
Data indicates that approximately 39% of reported laboratory incidents involve chemical spills, and more than half of histopathology workers report symptoms associated with chemical exposure, including headaches, sore throat, and respiratory irritation.
Ventilation systems play a central role here, yet performance gaps are common. Roughly 20% of fume hoods fail to meet ANSI/ASSP laboratory ventilation standards, and airflow can decrease by 20–50% when filters are not properly monitored. These issues often go unnoticed until symptoms surface or an inspection forces correction.The result is a disconnect between perceived safety controls and actual exposure conditions at the bench.
The Overlooked Role of Workflow Design
When grossing incidents are reviewed in isolation, the focus typically falls on individual behavior: improper hand positioning, missed PPE, or a momentary lapse. But taken together, the data points to a broader issue—grossing safety is inseparable from workflow and infrastructure design.
Key contributors include:- Bench layout that forces awkward movements or hand crossings.
- Inadequate separation of sharps, specimens, and chemical handling zones.
- Ventilation performance assumed rather than verified.
- Time pressure that discourages incident reporting or pause-and-correct behavior.
Why Grossing Safety Deserves Strategic Attention
Grossing is often treated as a technical step—necessary, but routine. In reality, it is a foundational control point in histology operations. Failures here affect not only staff safety, but also specimen integrity, turnaround time, and downstream quality.
As labs face higher volumes, staffing constraints, and increasing scrutiny around worker safety, grossing environments deserve the same strategic attention given to automation, imaging, and workflow optimization elsewhere in the lab.
That starts with acknowledging a simple truth: where risk concentrates, leadership attention must follow.
Safety at the gross bench is not a peripheral issue. It is an operational responsibility—and one that directly impacts people every day.