deborah goletz on sat 19 jun 99
Original message:
>Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 17:40:21 EDT
>From: Eric/Jennifer Koehler
>Subject: Pregnancy safety?
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Anyone have any info on which clays/glazes are safe for use when pregnant?
>I'm not, but am contemplating it...(Merrie is now freaking out LOL) Just for
>future reference. Especially for raku purposes. TIA.
Jennifer, when I was pregnant I had a meeting with a genetics councellor
and furnished her with a rather extensive list of all the glaze materials
in the studio which I was exposed to (at first she really flipped) - lead
and barium were not on the list as I don't use them. As it turns out,
there is not that much information available on the effect to a fetus of
many of our commonly used materials - a few, when exposed to lab rat
fetuses caused cleft palate - but it was unclear (to me) whether the mother
rat or the fetus itself was exposed to the chemicals.
I would advise you to seek out a genetics councellor and also consult with
Monona Rossol's book about the common dangers of ceramic materials. One of
the things you must also know is that when pregnant, you require a larger
intake of oxygen (because you have a larger volume of blood). This makes
the use of a heavy respirator impossible. I occasionally wore a
lightweight paper mask for dusty tasks but avoided glaze mixing when I was
pregnant. When I glazed (wet) I wore gloves and was as careful as possible
not to get glaze on my hands or clothes.
Another issue that you need to consider is that we tend to do a lot of
lifting in this business ... glaze buckets, clay, materials, equipment and
pots in and out of kilns. You will need to REALLY curtail this lifting!
Your balance will also be affected, so if you do anything that requires
standing on a stool you might rethink that too!
On the bright side, I had FOUR pregnant women taking classes in my studio
this spring - all of whom delivered within a few weeks of each other - and
all the babies are healthy. But we instituted ways to keep these women
from lifting (other students carried clay for them etc.) and we did not mix
glazes in the studio when they were present.
Best to you, DeBorah
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