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Karen Wetterhahn (1949
-
June 8,
1997) was a well-known
professor of
chemistry at
Dartmouth College specializing
in toxic metal exposure. On
August 14,
1996 while working with an
organic
mercury compound called
dimethylmercury, she spilled a
drop or two on her
latex
glove. Several months later,
she noticed some neurologic
symptoms such as loss of balance
and slurred speech. She was
admitted to the hospital, where it
was discovered that the single
exposure to dimethylmercury had
raised her blood mercury level to
80 times the lethal dose. Despite
aggressive
chelation therapy, she fell
into a coma and died a few months
later, less than a year after her
initial exposure.
Her death, despite use of
gloves, a
fume hood, and standard safety
procedures, shocked her chemistry
department. They tested various
safety gloves against
dimethylmercury, apparently
for the first time ever, and found
that most of them were penetrated
in seconds. Dimethylmercury was in
fairly wide use as a standard for
calibrating diagnostic
instruments. The discovery of its
extreme toxicity and danger is
directly due to Karen Wetterhahn's
unfortunate accident.
OSHA recommendations and
MSDSes were changed in
consequence and use of
dimethylmercury has been highly
discouraged.
The irony of her death, from
the very agents that she
specialized in, makes her death
particularly poignant.
Dartmouth has established an
award in her name to encourage
other women in science.
