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
