Phenoxyethanol as a nontoxic preservative in the dissection laboratory.

In an effort to rid the dissection room of irritating and potentially health-threatening toxic chemicals, we have modified the phenoxyethanol technique for long-term preservation of embalmed cadavers. The new methods employ faster, less toxic embalming and reduced or eliminated phenoxyethanol immersions. Our results are comparable with or improved over those previously described and demonstrate that phenoxyethanol is an excellent, easily manageable alternative preservative to standard formaldehyde/phenol-based embalming fluids.