Cleaning in a laboratory first trimester

[Jalei84]

Hello,

I have been cleaning in a building with around 6 laboratory’s for the past 2 months. I found out I’m pregnant 2 weeks ago. I do mainly the outside areas but have to enter them to change the bins (about 8 in total) I am now really worried this could have caused harm to my baby.

One of the rooms contain radiation which I don’t enter but have to walk past each day. The workers have lab coats and glasses on when entering the labs.

I am so worried when changing the bins I could have potentially breathed in harmful chemicals. I know I need to tell my employer but I’m worried about harm that could have been caused already. Does anyone know anything about this ? Could changing bins with chemicals/powders be dangerous? They often seem covered in powdery substances.

The only advice I was told when I started was to wear a coat going in and out.

thanks

posted in pregnancy section too as very worried

I'm a scientist and worked in a lab until 37 weeks with both DC. So have several of my colleagues. The powders are unlikely to be harmful unless the lab is disposing of things incorrectly. There are safe disposal routes that should be adhered to for all chemicals. Again radiation is very tightly controlled so you should be fine. Your manager has to do a specific risk assessment once you tell them you're pregnant though.

Pretty much exactly what FruitToast said. Anything potentially dangerous shouldnt be in the bins!
But given you dont know the labs, I'd tell your manager sooner rather than later, just incase there is something less than ideal in the area. Because I knew our labs well, I just avoided one room when one particular method was being carried out - ie I did my own risk assessment proir to the official one!

Anything dangerous should be disposed of by specialist disposal routes not just in general bins. I too worked in labs safely for the full length of my pregnancies. Our work employee handbook requires us to inform management as soon as we find out we are pregnant so a risk assessment can be done. I used to work on some high risk products but we were fully trained before we were allowed to handle them at all, so I was avoiding certain things anyway when TTC, no way would cleaners have had to handle them.