I was recently pregnant (I have a happy and healthy 8month old). I work in a research lab and did come in contact with xylene at 12 weeks when our processor went crazy and we had a whole batch of processing go wrong on us.
I was pretty scared that the xylene had affected the baby so I got a xylene exposure badge from the h+s dept and we did a test. Even with the stainer open and the mounting hood at its top limit we didn't even come close to the legal limit of xylene exposure. I suppose my point is that new fume hoods do their job really well. I would certainly stay away from changing the Machine Caroline Miller Gladstone Institutes www.gladstoneinstitutes.org Tel: 415 7342566 Cell: 415 2187297 On Mar 6, 2013, at 7:33 AM, Bob Richmond <[email protected]> wrote: > Helayne Parker is concerned about a woman 5 weeks pregnant working in > an ordinary histopathology lab. > > I think the major issue is xylene (along with toluene and benzene). If > the lab uses xylene in tissue processing and staining, I don't think > she should be around it. If the lab is otherwise xylene-free, the > mounting medium probably contains an aromatic hydrocarbon, and I don't > think she should be coverslipping even under a proper hood, since > xylene is readily absorbed through the skin. > > I think formaldehyde depends on ventilation. If the lab's as badly > ventilated as most labs I work in, then I wouldn't want her to be > around it. > > She should definitely run the problem past her OB-GYN, but I wouldn't > want to put her doctor in the position of having to decide for her, > simply because the problem is so far out of the doctor's field of > expertise. Remember that very few pathologists (let alone clinicians) > know as much about the materials science of histology as I do! > > Bob Richmond > Samurai Pathologist > Maryville, TN > > _______________________________________________ > Histonet mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
