# Karen Wetterhahn's death: why were the recommended safety precautions so inadequate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900 "2019-10-17T13:09:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/1 "2019-10-17T13:09:26Z")
[Karen Wetterhahn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn) famously died after being exposed to dimethylmercury. She was a chemistry prof, and had been using the recommended personal protective equipment while working with the substance, but the 1-2 drops that landed on her glove permeated very quickly and then entered her body through her skin; she begin showing symptoms of exposure several months later, and was dead within a year. it was only after she died that the authorities realized how quickly that stuff can soak through latex gloves. How is that possible? How could latex gloves have been recommended as adequate PPE without anyone having tested them to be sure? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/2 "2019-10-17T13:22:36Z")
Based on the wikipedia article, it sounds like they didn’t know the gloves weren’t effective until after Dr. Wetterhahn’s accident. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/3 "2019-10-17T13:28:05Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Based on the wikipedia article, it sounds like they didn’t know the gloves weren’t effective until after Dr. Wetterhahn’s accident. If they didn’t know the gloves weren’t effective, then it stands to reason they also didn’t know the gloves were effective. If they didn’t know the gloves were effective, how did the gloves get recommended as adequate PPE? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/4 "2019-10-17T13:31:35Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Based on the wikipedia article, it sounds like they didn’t know the gloves weren’t effective until after Dr. Wetterhahn’s accident. Which goes to my question: given that they were shown afterwards to be remarkably ineffective, what was the basis for recommending such gloves as PPE for dimethylmercury in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/5 "2019-10-17T13:34:57Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Which goes to my question: given that they were shown afterwards to be remarkably ineffective, what was the basis for recommending such gloves as PPE for dimethylmercury in the first place? Mistakes get made. The difference between just screwing around and science is writing it down. The key thing is that, unlike in institutions that don’t learn from their mistakes, no future chemistry professor is going to work with dimethylmercury ignorant of the dangers. (and the ones with adequate funding for safety gear will obviously use something like a rubber suit or whatever, with the protective layers tested this time) ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/6 "2019-10-17T13:46:52Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Which goes to my question: given that they were shown afterwards to be remarkably ineffective, what was the basis for recommending such gloves as PPE for dimethylmercury in the first place? A dirty not-so-secret about toxicology is that little is known about the vast majority of chemicals, even those millions of people work with every day. Case in point - pick a random safety data sheet. [Here’s one for EDTA](https://www.fishersci.com/store/msds?partNumber=S311100&productDescription=SOD+ETLEDIMINTETAC+CR+100G&vendorId=VN00033897&countryCode=US&language=en), an extremely common chemical used as a chelating/sequestering agent in cosmetics, medicine, and industry. > [@](#): > > Toxicologically Synergistic > Products > No information available > Delayed and immediate effects as well as chronic effects from short and long-term exposure > Irritation No information available > Sensitization No information available > Carcinogenicity The table below indicates whether each agency has listed any ingredient as a carcinogen. > Developmental Effects No information available. Teratogenicity No information available. STOT - single exposure None known > STOT - repeated exposure Respiratory system > Aspiration hazard No information available > Symptoms / effects,both acute and > delayed > No information available > Endocrine Disruptor Information No information available > Other Adverse Effects The toxicological properties have not been fully investigated. The lack of information in the SDS is not unusual, and due to its frequent use, this one has more information than many compounds used in research. Sadly, we’ve adopted a very find-out-about-it-during-widespread-use strategy towards chemical safety, and it costs lives. ---
**Author:** ![vonespy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vonespy/32/6204_2.png) [@vonespy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vonespy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/7 "2019-10-17T13:51:20Z")
It seems odd that she would have been the first one in recent history to be poisoned. How easy would it be to misdiagnose someone dying of mercury poisoning? ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/8 "2019-10-17T13:56:23Z")
> [@suretytek](#): > > It seems odd that she would have been the first one in recent history to be poisoned. How easy would it be to misdiagnose someone dying of mercury poisoning? Tons of people have died from mercury poisoning. But elemental “thermometer” mercury is much, much safer than this dimethylmercury stuff. Orders of magnitude safer. You can pick it up, touch it, mess around with it. Just don’t swallow it. Or do, it takes years of this to kill you. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/9 "2019-10-17T13:57:14Z")
From _Ignition!_ : > [@](#): > > All sorts of efforts were being made, during the late 50’s, to increase propellant densities, and I was responsible (not purposely, but from being taken seriously when I didn’t expect to be) for one of the strangest. Phil Pomerantz, of BuWeps, wanted me to try dimethyl mercury, Hg(CH₃)₂, as a fuel. I suggested that it might be somewhat toxic and a bit dangerous to synthesize and handle, but he assured me that it was (a) very easy to put together, and (b) as harmless as mother’s milk. I was dubious, but told him that I’d see what I could do. > > I looked the stuff up, and discovered that, indeed, the synthesis was easy, but that it was extremely toxic, and a long way from harmless. As I had suffered from mercury poisoning on two previous occasions and didn’t care to take a chance on doing it again, I thought that it would be an excellent idea to have somebody else make the compound for me. So I phoned Rochester, and asked my contact man at Eastman Kodak if they would make a hundred pounds of dimethyl mercury and ship it to NARTS. > > I heard a horrified gasp, and then a tightly controlled voice (I could hear the grinding of teeth beneath the words) informed me that if they were silly enough to synthesize that much dimethyl mercury, they would, in the process fog every square inch of photographic film in Rochester, and that, thank you just the same, Eastman was not interested. The receiver came down with a crash, and I sat back to consider the matter. An agonizing reappraisal seemed to be indicated. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/10 "2019-10-17T15:40:02Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > how did the gloves get recommended as adequate PPE? They didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/11 "2019-10-17T17:02:40Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > From _Ignition!_ : > > I heard a horrified gasp, and then a tightly controlled voice (I could hear the grinding of teeth beneath the words) informed me that if they were silly enough to synthesize that much dimethyl mercury, they would, in the process fog every square inch of photographic film in Rochester, and that, thank you just the same, Eastman was not interested. The receiver came down with a crash, and I sat back to consider the matter. An agonizing reappraisal seemed to be indicated. Seems strange they were more worried about fogging film than the ghastly toxicity of the stuff, and were assuming it would leak out into the local air. Odd… ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/12 "2019-10-17T17:07:08Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > A dirty not-so-secret about toxicology is that little is known about the vast majority of chemicals, even those millions of people work with every day. > > Sadly, we’ve adopted a very find-out-about-it-during-widespread-use strategy towards chemical safety, and it costs lives. But this does not apply to dimethyl mercury, which has been known to be extremely dangerous since Victorian times: eg Two laboratory assistants at the Royal Institution in London made some DMM in 1865. Neither survived. The case received extensive publicity. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/13 "2019-10-17T17:34:17Z")
> [@](#): > > they would, in the process fog every square inch of photographic film in Rochester, and that, thank you just the same, Eastman was not interested. The receiver came down with a crash “Not to worry, we wont be spraying it over Rochester - we’ll burn it dispersed over the Florida coastline…” ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/14 "2019-10-17T18:33:14Z")
> [@Bert\_Nobbins](#): > > Seems strange they were more worried about fogging film than the ghastly toxicity of the stuff, and were assuming it would leak out into the local air. Odd… You know, Eastman Kodak used to care quite a bit about photographic film. I hear they might even have manufactured some as a side hustle to their industrial chemical business. 😉 In all seriousness, mercury vapor hypersensitizes silver halide photographic film. Eastman Kodak used to make hypersensitized film (using forming gas, not mercury vapor) for astrophotography. So this representative would likely have been quite aware of the effect mercury can have on photographic film. I’d speculate that anything that threatened to mess with Eastman Kodak’s cash-cow film business would be a non-starter regardless of any other risks. If all mercury compound synthesis was already off-limits, the toxicity of any particular compound doesn’t much matter, does it? Think of it like incest with one’s syphilitic father: the “incest” part makes most people recoil even before they consider Dad’s STI screen. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/15 "2019-10-17T21:47:46Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > I’d speculate that anything that threatened to mess with Eastman Kodak’s cash-cow film business would be a non-starter … Quite right. So when people came to them with this new proposed ‘digital camera’ stuff, they quickly turned it down. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/16 "2019-10-17T22:08:44Z")
It’s a mistake to assume that because ‘it’s science’ that it’s actually evidence based. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/17 "2019-10-18T00:07:19Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > Think of it like incest with one’s syphilitic father Mercury of course was [once widely used for syphilis](https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/blogs/syphilis-and-the-use-of-mercury/20201679.blog?firstPass=false), at least until they came up with less toxic treatments involving arsenic derivatives. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/18 "2019-10-18T03:15:40Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > “Not to worry, we wont be spraying it over Rochester - we’ll burn it dispersed over the Florida coastline…” If you continue reading, while nobody was crazy enough to burn dimethylmercury, they were ordered to test-fire a rocket motor injected with elemental mercury, in New Jersey (for which purpose they constructed an exhaust scrubber). At the last minute, the test setup was taken over by China Lake and fired in the desert, without any scrubber. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Mercury of course was [once widely used for syphilis](https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/blogs/syphilis-and-the-use-of-mercury/20201679.blog?firstPass=false), at least until they came up with less toxic treatments involving arsenic derivatives. :eek: While poisonous, this was usually in the form of metallic mercury or mercury chloride, most of which was excreted after being swallowed. These were not in the same category of instant fatal mercury poisoning as dimethyl mercury. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/19 "2019-10-18T13:19:46Z")
> [@Bert\_Nobbins](#): > > But this does not apply to dimethyl mercury, which has been known to be extremely dangerous since Victorian times: > > eg Two laboratory assistants at the Royal Institution in London made some DMM in 1865. Neither survived. > The case received extensive publicity. I don’t think you understand. It’s not **whether** something is dangerous - we often know that. It’s **how** things are dangerous. The purpose of SDSs is not only to inform the user of whether something is toxic/hazardous/etc., but to provide more information on the types of toxicity and the hazards posed. For many compounds, the number of “no information available” entries (see the EDTA example I posted above for a fairly innocuous and commonly used chemical) complicates work with these compounds. What is the compound’s evaporation rate at standard temperature and pressure? We don’t know. What is its decomposition temperature? We don’t know. Is the compound hazardous as a chronic toxin or just acutely toxic? Until just a couple years ago, I was the Biosafety Officer at a small university, and this was the sort of information we would seek out when compiling our biosafety and chemical hygiene plans, but the limited information available meant that we likely were unaware of the risks posed by the compounds we worked with. The US policy of ‘use until you find out what’s wrong with it’ can be directly contrasted with European Union policy, which changed in the mid-2000s with [the REACH regulations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registration,_Evaluation,_Authorisation_and_Restriction_of_Chemicals). An excerpt from REACH’s wikipedia summary: > [@wikipedia](#): > > According to the European Commission, little safety information exists for 99 percent of the tens of thousands of chemicals placed on the market before 1981.[4] There were 100,106 chemicals in use in the EU in 1981, when the last survey was performed. Of these only 3,000 have been tested and over 800 are known to be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction. These are listed in the Annex 1 of the Dangerous Substances Directive (now Annex VI of the CLP Regulation). > > Continued use of many toxic chemicals is sometimes justified because “at very low levels they are not a concern to health”.[14] However, many of these substances may bioaccumulate in the human body, thus reaching dangerous concentrations. They may also chemically react with one another,[15] producing new substances with new risks. As I said, you can know something is dangerous, but if you don’t know **how** it’s dangerous, you might find out in the worst way possible. Wikipedia implies that Wetterhahn’s latex gloves were the best known safety measure at the time, and mentions that subsequent investigations proved them inadequate. Presumably 1990s-era MSDSs (the earlier name for SDSs) mentioned the need for gloves, but perhaps the type of glove required was unspecified or unknown. > [@wikipedia](#): > > Wetterhahn’s death shocked not only the entire chemistry department at Dartmouth, but also regulatory agencies, as the accidental exposure occurred despite her having taken all required measures known at that time. These included the use of latex gloves, a fume hood, and adherence to standard safety procedures. After Wetterhahn’s mercury poisoning was discovered, her colleagues tested various safety gloves against dimethylmercury and found that the small, apolar molecule diffuses through most of them in seconds, much more quickly than expected.[4][6] As a result, it is now recommended to wear plastic-laminate gloves when handling dimethylmercury. > **[Karen Wetterhahn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn)** > > Karen Elizabeth Wetterhahn (October 16, 1948 – June 8, 1997), also known as Karen Wetterhahn Jennette, was an American professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, who specialized in toxic metal exposure. She died of mercury poisoning at the age of 48 due to accidental exposure to the extremely toxic organic mercury compound dimethylmercury (.mw-parser-output .template-chem2-su{display:inline-block;font-size:80%;line-height:1;vertical-align:-0.35em}.mw-parser-output .template-ch We... ---
**Author:** ![albino\_manatee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/albino_manatee/32/2_2.png) [@albino\_manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/albino_manatee)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900/20 "2019-10-19T11:41:14Z")
came across interesting article regarding karen’s episode: > **[\- YouTube](https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/generalprofessionalissues/80958)** > > Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-wetterhahns-death-why-were-the-recommended-safety-precautions-so-inadequate/841900.md?page=2)