Preservatives

A preservative prevents decomposition or other chemical changes.

Chemical Preservatives

 * Thiomersal is a preservative in some vaccines and other drug products, however it is an Organomercury Compound and is therefore a neurotoxin. See thelinkfor more details.
 * Isothiazolones are a safter alternative preservative because they have no known carcinogenic or mutagenic ingredients.
 * Streck Tissue Fixative is a good replacement for formalin due to lower health hazard and flammability. Another advantage is that there are only minor modifications to the fixation and staining procedures. This option is expensive.
 * Wardsafe is a fixative with a price comparable to formalin. However, the best results with Wardsafe are fixing cells with formalin and preserving with Wardsafe, thus cutting down on formalin use but not eliminating it. .