Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:35:13 -0400
Reply-To: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: Vaiju.Bagal**At_Symbol_Here**EMDCHEMICALS.COM
Subject: Re: pregnant student in chemistry lab
In-Reply-To: <BBFA6832756A874D89D201416246904006E7B8A3**At_Symbol_Here**exchng2k.dom.edu>
Dr. Schmidt- Nebril ,
I am a methods development chemist and working in the lab as well while
pregnant in 1995. The role of the CHP in a scientifically literate lab
setting is to allow the knowledgeable chemist and the management to
determine how to manage the lab situation so that she can continue her
work. In my case,. my manager was going to force me, the only degreed
chemist in the lab with higher level responsibilities, to not work in the
lab at all, even with pH meters!! I brought the MSDS and work information
to the company's occupational physician and my own internist , and they
agreed with me that the laboratory was safe for me to work in. My daughter
was born quite healthy.
As Ms. Harrington pointed out, if the exposure is not safe for a pregnant
woman, it is not safe for anyone. And after all, there is teratogenic and
mutagenic infornation in the MSDS. As for the OSHA decision, apparently my
manager (retired from the company) was not aware of it at the time.
Ujjvala (Vaiju) Bagal
Specialist, Methods Development
Phone: 01-912-964-9050 ext.53236
Fax: 01-912-966-5917
Email: Vaiju.Bagal**At_Symbol_Here**emdchemicals.com
EMD Chemicals
110 EMD Blvd
Savannah, GA 31407
Home: www.emdchemicals.com
This message and any attachment(s) are confidential and may be privileged
or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended
recipient, you must not copy this message or attachment(s) or disclose the
content to any other person. If you have received this transmission in
error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the message and any
attachment from your system. EMD does not accept liability for any
omissions or errors in this message which may arise as a result of
E-Mail-transmission or for damages resulting from any unauthorized change
of the content of this message and any attachment(s) thereto. EMD does not
guarantee that this message is free of viruses and does not accept
liability for any damages caused by any virus transmitted therewith.
"Schmidt-Nebril, Kathleen"
Sent by: DCHAS-L Discussion List
08/09/2010 03:59 PM
Please respond to
DCHAS-L Discussion List
To
DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
cc
Subject
Re: [DCHAS-L] pregnant student in chemistry lab
For my courses if a student is pregnant I do not allow them to participate
in lab at all but rather set up "Dry" labs or use computer virtual labs in
place of the real thing. The unborn fetus is so susceptible why take a
risk especially when all or most of the exposure limits are based on
adults. I also am biased on this from my own experience of being pregnant
and performing lab work as a development chemist. I did have unexplained
issues with both of my pregnancies years ago and can't help but feel that
my exposure to chemicals may have contributed. I'd rather be safe then
sorry with a student or see if they can arrange to take the class at a
later date.
Kathleen Schmidt-Nebril, NRCC-CHO
Chemistry Division Department of Natural Science
Dominican University
River Forest, IL 60305
708-524-6533
-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List on behalf of David C. Finster
Sent: Mon 8/9/2010 1:54 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] pregnant student in chemistry lab
I am aware that a student who will be taking a general chemistry course
this fall is pregnant. I am writing to the list to seek advice about how
to best handle this circumstance (assuming that one of the options - not
taking the course - is not a preferred option).
(I have checked the D-CHAS archives, and other sources, and found no
particularly helpful answers to this question. This is not really a CHP
matter since the student is not an employee - although we ordinarly use
our CHP as the safety document for students, too.)
So far as I know (but I can check this to be certain) none of the
chemicals used in our general chemistry labs are teratogens. Thus, my
initial suggested course of action is that the student participate in all
of the labs experiments (using all of the PPE at all times that is
recommended for all students.) We rarely use chemical hoods in this
particular course since most of the chemicals we use present no
significant inhalation risk. (We use hoods when there is an inhalation
risk.)
If there is some chemical that is, or is suspected to be, a teratogen, I
would advise the student to skip that lab (and have the instructor
determine how to do this without any penalty to the student).
The pathway suggested above seems reasonable and prudent to me. However,
since we live in a world where the consideration of worst-case scenarios
is wise and legally prudent, it seems to me that having the student
consult with her physician (with a complete list of chemicals "in hand")
and having the physician and/or student "sign off" on some reasonable
statement in advance seems smart. Since I would not expect a physician to
be familiar with the teratogenic effects of "all chemicals", I would also
present the physician with a detailed list of the known or suspected
effects of each chemical (extracted from TOXNET) with regard to being
handled while pregnant.
The advice and experience of the D-CHAS group is welcome.
Dave
David C. Finster
Professor of Chemistry
University Chemical Hygiene Officer
Department of Chemistry
Wittenberg University
dfinster**At_Symbol_Here**wittenberg.edu
This message and any attachment are confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not copy this message or attachment or disclose the contents to any other person. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the message and any attachment from your system. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and any of its subsidiaries do not accept liability for any omissions or errors in this message which may arise as a result of E-Mail-transmission or for damages resulting from any unauthorized changes of the content of this message and any attachment thereto. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and any of its subsidiaries do not guarantee that this message is free of viruses and does not accept liability for any damages caused by any virus transmitted therewith.
Click http://disclaimer.merck.de to access the German, French, Spanish and Portuguese versions of this disclaimer.
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post