Trizol and safety - (Jun/05/2012 )

Dear Bioforum community,

I am a PhD student in the US, and my project requires that I do a bunch of RNA extractions using trizol. The MSDS for trizol is pretty scary, I've always used it in a well maintained hood, with double gloves etc.

But I've just found out that I'm pregnant. There isn't a whole lot of literature on the risks associated with trizol and fetuses (other than those associated with maternal death in mother rats!!). Does anyone have any experience with the risks of using trizol? Or further information? I realize that there are risks associated with even pumping gas for my car, but this sounds like it could be much worse.

Any information and opinions would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

? I do not understand your question really...

In my country, its simple: pregnant ==> get the hell out of the lab...

If you are pregnant you have no bussines being in a lab. In almost every lab you will find products that are not really "good" to work with when being pregnant.
+ you just dont take any risks.

So I find it a bit weird you have to ask this... normally your supervisors should have tolded you to leave the lab... (or havent you told them...? which would be weird too...)

Always play safe., dont take any risks...

Pito, is, of course, correct. Also, I take it that you are not lone working in that lab (which would be in issue unto itself) in which case, what else is being used in that lab?
If you haven't already done so you should inform your supervisor and s/he should conduct a 'new and expectant mothers risk assessment' or have H&S conduct it.
There should be protocols for this and if you're concerned about disclosure to your supervisor, for whatever reason, contacting the Safety Advisor for the lab would normally be a good choice.

Thanks for the reply guys. But there have been other pregnant members of my lab that have kept working with no problem. We're a simple molecular lab, and except for the trizol, our most risky chemical is the formamide (for which pregnant people have always left the room, of course).

So if anyone knows specifically about trizol, then I would appreciate it.

And it's quite typical to not mention a 6 week pregnancy... not yet!

Thanks!

Firstly, congratulations, that's awesome. Good luck with the pregnancy and beyond, parenthood is amazingly wonderful.

Trizol is mostly just buffered Phenol - have a look at a MSDS for phenol - here is one relevant remark:

6 weeks is still early stage, it isn't considered a certain pregnancy until about 12 usually. Unfortunately, much of the early development is when the major effects of chemical exposure are most obvious (e.g. fetal alcohol syndrome is mostly due to exposure to alcohol at 2-6 weeks). I would have a closed-door chat with your boss and see what your options are, there may be paper based jobs or gel running or something less hazardous they could put you onto.

The lack of literature on the subject is because it is pretty hard to get ethics for exposing pregnant humans to dangerous chemicals...Rats are reasonably similar to humans in their development, but of course, there are bound to be some differences in response to chemical exposure in there that would occur to a greater or lesser extent in humans. Personally, I would do as much as I could to avoid any exposure to anything nasty in the off-chance that it may have some effect.

bob1 on Sun Jun 10 23:07:24 2012 said:

Here you go, this is what I ment.
Bob1 said it more clearly.
You are pregnant, dont take any risks, the first weeks are the most "important" ones... I know that its hard to tell people you are pregnant before you reached a certain weeks.. But dont take risks.. You work in a lab (even if you dont use that any chemicals) , so dont take any risks...

Chloramphenicol, for instanance, is thought to be a problem in pregnancy. So, you don't need to be working with "chemicals," whatever that means -- just some culture medium or plates.

phage434 on Mon Jun 11 12:12:48 2012 said:

By chemicals (in my opinion) I mean every substance possible.. So even chloramphenicol is in my eyes a chemical.

For me its pretty simple: pregnant, dont be in the lab.