Lili Krakowski on thu 4 sep 08
After I posted the Metal Fume Fever/Raku Hangover rants I wrote
to the inimitable, wonderfully generous, really caring Monona
Rossol about my concern-which I voiced to potterybasics as well
as Clayart -about these fumes and their possible effect on
pregnant/nursing women and fetuses. Had studies been made on
women, pregnant/nursing women?
I got the following answer, with permission to quote:
"....There is a lot on lead, but there have not been enough women
in jobs where one metal predominates and in which so many women
worked that significant numbers of pregnancies could be studied.
I have a data sheet on pregnancy and art in general with a
section on the metals that is common sense advice. What it
points out is that the balance of required minerals in the body
is crucial during pregnancy. You don't want too much or too
little of anything. Selenium, for example, is known to be
required in very small amounts in the body, but large amounts are
toxic and may cause cancer.
So the amounts of selenium, chromium, iron, magnesium, calcium,
potassium, and all those required many minerals must be in just
the right amounts in the diet for optimum health. You don't
suddenly want to throw a lot of one of more of these into the
body during pregnancy. Everything you eat and everything you
work with is important to consider at this time.
It's also important to understand that amounts of chemicals which
cause no symptoms at all in the woman may be seriously harmful to
the fetus.
You can tell them that if they send an SASE, I'll print them out
a free copy of this data sheet and send it. It also covers
solvents, estrogenic chemicals like the phthalates, etc. The
address is:
ACTS
181 Thompson St., #23
NYC, NY 10012-2586"
A couple of years ago I sent an SASE to Monona, and got back a
wonderful piece of information, and sent it on to my pregnant
young niece the art teacher, along with Monona's book "The Artist's
Complete Health and Safety Guide".
I urge anyone who cares, and I mean CARES to get the data sheet,
and the book, because (see related post) carelessness of this
sort is not funny.
And I urge you all to subscribe to ACTS which deals with all
sorts of safety issues in the arts -theatre, painting, printing,
clay-because so many of us are involved in more than one area of
the arts-and ACTS does a great job.
And I am not related to MR except by common, fragile humanity,
have no financial interest, pattati, pattata.
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
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