Okay, so you can accuse me of being obsessive compulsive, but you won't be telling me anything I don't know already. I have not been able to get the paint thinner day out of my mind. I go over and over it in my head, trying to remember exactly how long I spent in a room with the fumes. It's been a whole week, and today I was still thinking about it. I've googled the hell out of "paint thinner" and "early pregnancy," "organic solvent" and "first trimester," every combination of search terms you can think of. All anyone says is that exposure to solvents and other toxic chemicals should be minimized during pregnancy (duh) and that occupational, repeated exposure carries a greater risk of congenital abnormalities.
But nothing about a jar of paint thinner falling over in a drawer which was then cleaned in a kitchen that the expectant mom could not manage to extricate herself from until she had her coat on since it was bleeping cold outside and in the end she breathed in the toxic fumes for maybe a minute. Nope, no answers to that one.
So I decided to call Mother Risk and get some real answers. After waiting on hold for 25 minutes, finally a very nice young man came on the line and listened to my story. He put me on hold again while he went looking for the appropriate information. When he came back, he carefully explained why long-term exposure in the workplace would be bad, or repeated exposure in the home, but since I only breathed the stuff in for a short time, and didn't exhibit any symptoms afterwards (no nausea, headache, dizziness), then apparently sprite is in the clear. "You don't have anything to worry about," he concluded. Whee haw, nothing to worry about!
My husband has been trying to tell me this for days, but who listens to husbands anyway? Lordy, I feel much better now. Guess I'll have to find something else to obsess about.
I love this post - we're all the same huh. Need to disect and enquire and stress until we for whatever reason feel that someone somewhere gave us a piece of advice or reassurance that clicked in place for us. And yes there will no doubt be something else to fill the paranoia void.
Keep that chap's number handy.
Big smooch and glad Monday's just around the corner.
Posted by: eM | January 15, 2005 at 06:27 AM
Sending you calm soothing thoughts!
Posted by: B. Mare | January 16, 2005 at 11:32 AM
I'm so glad you got some reassurance! Don't husbands love it when we don't believe THEM, but then immediately believe some phone expert? :) Hope today went well.
Posted by: Joanne | January 17, 2005 at 07:38 PM
Ha! Ha! I can relate to this. We were doing remodeling in a couple of rooms of our house when I was about 7 months along with my first son. We were doing a lot of painting and I didn't realize that the fumes could be dangerous until someone else I talked to mentioned that I probably shouldn't be doing that while I'm pregnant. After that the paranoia went way up and I called a nurse who told me that was true. Well, that left it up to my husband to all the painting and he was desperately trying to keep up. We went out and invested in a filter mask and made sure that I could not smell the paint fumes with it. After that I was able to help out and everythinbg worked out fine.
I could say get a heavy duty filter mask and keep it on hand if you're concerned you're going to be fumed! I'd love to see your husband's reaction when you put on that thing! :)
Posted by: Sandy | February 23, 2006 at 04:49 PM
I know you wrote this over a year ago, but I am freaking out and your post is the only one I could find with any relevant information. I was a passenger in a car today that had a varnished/lacquered floor medallion in the back seat. I am only 6 weeks along and am scared because I breathed the fumes for the entire car ride. We drove for about an hour total, with stops about every 15 minutes. Is this going to be a problem? I am mostly worried because I was in a closed car and the newly lacquered floor medallion made the car smell heavily of paint fumes. I tried to hold my hand over my mouth and nose, but I couldn't breathe very well that way. Based upon what you were told by Mother Risk, do you remember if the harmful exposure was longer than an hour or not? Also, if I was not directly smelling the fumes, but was trapped in a car with fumes that were a few days old, would that be harmful?
Posted by: Carlee | February 04, 2007 at 01:20 AM