Hi Richard,

I've recently been involved in a group that is looking at standards in fluid collections. One of the main issues of using a denatured alcohol is there is a wide range of chemicals licensed to be the denaturant, many with unknown long term preservation effects. These can include methyl ethyl alcohol (MEK), camphor and naptha. In the UK the prime denaturant of IDA is methanol and there is evidence to support increased degradation rates of DNA with such IDA when compared to pure ethanol. The best advice that can be given is to use as pure a form of ethanol as is possible to obtain - the more denaturants the higher the probability that long term preservation will be affected. Because of these concerns many large institutions, including us, have started to use absolute ethanol rather than IDA - however getting such exception for an individual would be an interesting challenge with Customs and Excise.....

I'll try and dig out a few references but there is a lack of detailed research in many areas such as the range of denaturants which makes putting together solid guidelines on fluid preserved collections quite challenging. I'm also working with Dirk (who has already been mentioned in some of the responses).

Best wishes

Jules Carter
Principle Conservator Natural Sciences
National Museum Wales

________________________________
From: The Natural Science Collections Association discussion list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Brown [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 10 February 2015 09:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: IDA for biological recorders

For those who do not have a supply of IMS, IDA or CDA at their university or museum…….. see below

From: Richard Burkmar [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 10 February 2015 09:14
To: Paul Brown
Subject: IDA for biological recorders

Hi Paul,

Many thanks for your offer to put this request for information around your contacts. The story is as follows...

A couple of biological recorders have made recent applications to Customs & Excise for licenses to purchase Industrial Denatured Alcohol (IDA) - which used to be called Industrial Methylated Spirit (IMS) - and both have been met with a refusal on the grounds that evidence is required that Completely Denatured Alcohol (CDA) could not be used instead.

One of these people is a member of the Shropshire Spider Group and BAS and another one is a member of the Earthworm Society of the British Isles. They want the IDA for preserving spiders and earthworms respectively so that they can partake as active biological recorders for their societies.

Here is the response that one of them received (I believe the other was similar):

"Thank you for your application to receive and use Industrial Denatured Alcohol (IDA). Could you give me more information as to what you use the IDA for and why it needs to be IDA? Is there any technical or trade literature that specifies IDA needs to be used rather than Completely Denatured Alcohol? There has been a change to the formulation from the 1st July 2013 and the inclusion of dye is no longer mandatory in the CDA prescribed formulation. Can you advise if you will be able to use CDA, if not can you send literature where it stipulates that IDA has to be used instead of CDA?"

As far as I'm aware, both these biological recorders specified what the IDA was to be used for and the sticking point is finding literature to say that CDA is unsuitable. As well as the dye that used to be a mandatory addition to CDA, it also has other chemicals added and the general opinion is that CDA - even without dye - would not be suitable for preserving invertebrates. The problem is that I can find no literature that could be used to support their applications to C&E.

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about whether or not a license is actually required. But this arises, I believe, because a lot of biological recorders get their IDA (or Ethanol) from an scientific institution, by one means or another, and they do not require a license via this route. But an amateur biological recorder who does not have the option of obtaining alcohol via a scientific institution does need a license to purchase IDA or Ethanol privately – even in the smallest quantity.

Until recently, getting a license granted from C&E was no problem if you stated that you wanted to use it for preserving specimens – I have one myself and know many other biological recorders who do. It seems to be a recent change in policy by C&E.

What would be really useful would be either:


1.       Some authoritative literature which states that CDA is not suitable for preserving specimens and outlining the reasons why (other than the dye which is no longer mandatory); or

2.       An authoritative letter from a respected institution that could be used in support of applications from biological recorders to C&E for licenses to purchase IDA.

Best wishes,

Rich

Dr Richard Burkmar
Biodiversity Project Officer
Field Studies Council
Head Office
Montford Bridge
Shrewsbury
SY4 1HW

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