The products

Specimens and slides

On this page11

Classroom specimen What it needs from a container Which points at glass With the breakage objection So the storage matters as much as the jar Microscope slide prep The stains and mountants we can serve The slides we cannot Amber for the stains that need it And date the mountant References

No slide box, of any kind. Said at the top rather than at the bottom.

Classroom specimen

A preserved biological specimen in a sealed jar, opened for a lesson and returned to a cupboard. The formaldehyde standard is the governing authority and the seal is the control.

What it needs from a container

A wide mouth the specimen fits through, a closure that seals against vapor, a wall that lets the specimen be seen without opening it, and a label that survives being wiped.

Which points at glass

130 glass containers, 21 of them straight sided jars. Inert against a fixative, clear, and the format a specimen is conventionally held in.

With the breakage objection

Real in a classroom and worse here than anywhere, because breaking a specimen jar releases the fixative into the room. That is an exposure event, not a spill.

So the storage matters as much as the jar

A tray, a low shelf and a ventilated cupboard. The container choice is half of the answer and the cupboard is the other half.

Microscope slide prep

Slides, cover slips, stains and mountants. Small volumes of liquid, and then a stack of fragile glass rectangles that have to be kept flat, dry and in order.

The stains and mountants we can serve

32 dropper assemblies, 3 dropper tips and caps and 3 euro droppers, with the 78 glass Boston rounds for anything solvent-borne. A mountant in particular is often solvent-based.

The slides we cannot

A slide box is a slotted tray with a lid and this catalog has none. 2 tubes on the shelf, which is not a slide storage offering, and saying so is more useful than suggesting a jar.

Amber for the stains that need it

54 amber containers. Several biological stains are light sensitive and a stain kept on a windowsill gives a different result in six months.

And date the mountant

A mountant that has thickened behaves differently and bubbles under the cover slip. A date on the bottle is the diagnostic when a whole class of slides comes out badly.

References

29 CFR 1910.1048(m). Paragraph (m)(1)(iv) applies the hazard communication requirements to "chemicals associated with formaldehyde gas, all mixtures or solutions composed of greater than 0.1 percent formaldehyde, and materials capable of releasing formaldehyde" at 0.1 ppm or above. Under (m)(2)(i), for a material releasing formaldehyde above 0.5 ppm the label addresses the cancer and respiratory sensitization hazards and contains the statement "May Cause Cancer". Under (m)(2)(ii), for a material releasing between 0.1 and 0.5 ppm the label identifies that the product contains formaldehyde and states that "physical and health hazard information is readily available from the employer and from safety data sheets". osha.gov

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 18 October 2026. The classroom and home lab shelf is 987 rows: 414 containers and 573 closures. 5 mL to 946 mL with a median of 120; 71 containers at 30 mL or under, 211 at 120 or under, 335 at a pint or under. 154 HDPE, 130 glass, 117 PET, 13 PP. 259 bottles, 150 jars, 3 jugs, 2 tubes. 109 white, 105 clear, 57 natural, 54 amber. Closures: 373 continuous thread, 44 child resistant, 32 dropper assemblies, 27 dome lids, 27 spouted, 19 flip top, 14 phenolic, 10 liners and sealing discs, 9 specialty, 7 buttress, 3 dropper tips and caps, 3 euro droppers.

Written from 29 CFR 1910.1048 and from the catalog as it stood on 18 October 2026. No autoclave cycle is quoted and no container is described as autoclavable, because our data does not record it. School district and state rules on classroom chemicals exist, vary, and are not summarized here.