[Histonet] RE: Pregnancy

[Elizabeth Chlipala]

Helayne

Since OSHA does not have any guidelines with respects to xylene and formaldehyde in pregnancy (they do mention pregnancy in both standards, but no PEL's, etc.)  her restrictions need to come from her OB/GYN physician. This was told to me by an OSHA industrial hygienist that was in our lab.  What is a mask going to do?  Not unless you are referring to one of those 3M respirators 3M 8247 - Nuisance level organic vapor relief.  If your chemical monitoring results are below the OSHA standard then you could bring these respirators in as voluntary use.  You need to have the appropriate safety policies and training associated with that.  I have those in place so if you need help with that I can help.   If for any reason even though you are below the PEL's and you want to bring in a tight fit respirators then you have to have a full blown respiratory protection program.  Your responsibility as an employer is to perform a written hazard assessment of the job (based on sampling results) the employees can then be offered filtering face pieces and other proper PPE.

Just my two cents.

Liz

Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC
Laboratory Manager
Premier Laboratory, LLC
PO Box 18592
Boulder, CO 80308
Work (303) 682-3949
Fax (303) 682-9060
Cell (303) 881-0763
liz <@t> premierlab.com
www.premierlab.com

Ship to address:

1567 Skyway Drive, Unit E
Longmont, CO 80504



-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Parker, Helayne
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 10:10 AM
To: 'histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu'
Subject: [Histonet] Pregnancy

Hi Gang,
   Thought I would ask some people with some more experience than I in this.  One of our techs is pregnant-  Yay !!!  She is very early - about 5 weeks.  My Lab Director wants her to start wearing a mask due to the chemicals.  So we need to ask what sort of precautions need to take place during the pregnancy etc.  We also coverslip by hand here out of xylene etc.  I can not remember ever working with any pregnant HTs in the past so I honestly do not know.  Please carbon copy replies to JAScholefield <@t> skaggs.net as well.  We predominately work with 10% formalin, reagent grade alcohols, paraplast, xylenes, clear-rite 3, Decal I and II (from Surgipath), cytofixative and some routine special stain items. Basically the typical myriad of stuff a very small routine histo lab would have (no immunos)....

Thanks and bunch for your help !


Sincerely,

Helayne Parker, H.T. (ASCP)
Pathology Section Head
Cox Medical Center Branson
P.O. Box 650, Branson, MO 65615
Phone:  417-335-7254
Fax:  417-335-7127
Email:  hparker <@t> skaggs.net
Web:  www.coxhealth.com/branson