[Nhcoll-l] Protecting pregnant workers or others with certain health conditions

[Kathryn Makos]

With all respect to Dr. Neumann, you really cannot ever sign your rights
away when it comes to safety regulations (at least not in the U.S.) and this
may not be the way to look at this.  Let's flip the question.  You don't
have your employees sign a waiver right?  Because, of course, you as the
employer are legally and ethically responsible to provide (as OSHA says) a
"safe and healthful workplace" and this absolutely applies to anyone (not
just employees) that you have permitted to work in or visit/access your
collections.  Interns, visitors, post-docs, research scientists,
contractors.  In the U.S., the Hazard Communication standard's intent is
that everyone be informed up front about possible hazards/risks and the
facility's control policies and equipment in place for them to use.

Here are a few ideas: First, this is not about pregnancy as much as it is
about: how do you safely accommodate a worker with health conditions that
can be negatively affected by the hazards?  The CA Academy of Sciences must
have some sort of Safety Policy, possibly a Safety Mgr? and probably some
account with an occupational health clinic or can locate one easily enough
through their insurance risk manager.  First start with informing the
pregnant worker what hazard controls (respirator? Gloves? HEPA vacuum?
Housekeeping procedures to remove arsenical particulates?) you already
require under the laws and California safety laws are among the strictest in
the nation.  Then, that pregnant worker should be evaluated by your (or her
own) health care provider as to her health status against the hazards she
will likely encounter.  The doctor then is the one who determines what she
can do and offer accommodation suggestions to the facility.  Some pregnant
workers cannot wear a respirator, for instance, due to complicating
problems.  Some could.  The health care provider makes that call and should
be in contact with you.

Another suggestion: the University of California system (particularly at
Davis) has one of the finest sets of Environmental, Health and Safety
policies and resources around.  I strongly encourage you to contact your
nearest one for their advice on how they deal with this issue.

But, you are still responsible for making sure health risks are reduced and
so apply some good sensibilities about how at-risk your worker might
potentially be and protect her accordingly.

Best regards,
Kathryn Makos MPH CIH
Industrial Hygienist
(Ret) Smithsonian Institution




Today's Topics:

   1. Protocols for Hazardous Materials use by pregnant	researchers
      (Flannery, Moe)
   2. Re: Protocols for Hazardous Materials use by pregnant
      researchers (Dirk Neumann)


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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 17:07:15 +0000
From: "Flannery, Moe" <MFlannery at calacademy.org>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Protocols for Hazardous Materials use by pregnant
	researchers
To: "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu" <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Message-ID:
	<5C50A2FFF4983F4B81F7CC2C6BAD9991259B40E7 at MAILBOX01.calacademy.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hello all-

Do any of your organizations have a formal protocol outlining the use of
specimens that may contain hazardous materials (i.e. arsenic, formalin) by
staff or researchers who are pregnant? We had a request from a visiting
researcher who is pregnant to work in the bird skin collection which does
contain arsenic. Unfortunately our institutional chemical hygiene protocol
for arsenic does not address pregnancy.

Thanks for any suggestions or copies of protocols if available.

Best,
Moe

Maureen Flannery
Ornithology and Mammalogy Collection Manager California Academy of Sciences
p. 
= >

55 Music Concourse Drive
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA 94118




Message: 2
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 18:38:46 +0100
From: Dirk Neumann <dirk.neumann at zsm.mwn.de>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Protocols for Hazardous Materials use by
	pregnant researchers
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Message-ID: <54DCE526.3010002 at zsm.mwn.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

Dear Moe,

this is a question of liability. We do it the other way round in our
histology & DNA lab (especially in the histology which works with poisonous
osmium tetroxid): we explain the health risks properly, refer to the msds
sheets which list all known hazards, and then let pregnant women who wish to
work in the lab sign a document that they have been informed about potential
health risks (in a thorough safety briefing), and that we do not take any
responsibility or liability.

Our advice for permanent staff is: do not enter the lab area. For visitors,
you cannot take any responsibility anyway, but I guess because of the legal
system in the US you could be sued. As you probably don't know the exact
history of your specimens anyway (could include also other poisons or
poisonous products resulting from secondary reactions), I would avoid to
target for any protocol on specific (single) chemicals anyway, because you
can't include the rest you don't know.

Consequently, I would warn explicitly for any eventual risks potentially
linked with the material, and let the visitor sign that he understood, knows
and accepts that you will not take any responsibility or liability.

Hope this helps

Dirk