I work in theater production, and have consistently for the last few years. My workspace is a combination of computer and area where people might fix equipment. By fix equipment, that means occasionally (once every few weeks) using solder with lead and a soldering iron. Right above my computer is the iron and solder, sitting on a shelf. 90% of the time that I'm at my desk I am on my computer. Please note that I myself have not done any soldering since I got KU, and people have not done any soldering while I was in the room. But they may do soldering when I'm not there, and got worried that the solder gets touched, and then my computer gets touched and all the other stuff in my work area gets contaminated with lead, and then I come along and eat lunch at my desk...
I called my doc and she says that she isn't sure and will look it up with the CDC and get back to me. One thing that I forgot to ask her is if I've ever been tested for lead (since I had sooo many blood tests done). Of all the pregnancy scares that we can potentially come across, this is by far the one that I might be freaking out the most about. Ok, I'm FREAKED OUT. I'm 20 weeks and go in for my anatomy ultrasound on Friday. Up until this point, the lead contamination thing didn't cross my mind because I figured as long as I wasn't actively soldering and breathing in the fumes, it's OK. That's before I knew that it was bad just to touch the solder, and you're supposed to wash your hands after using it, which is not something we practice here so I doubt my coworkers do.
Someone please tell me that they worked in/were exposed to a similar environment and it was OK.
Pregnant or not I definitely wouldn't be eating at your work station/desk.
Yeah, now that I know I will not be doing it anymore!
An update: as my anxiety continued to grow, I looked up the info on the CDC website myself. I read the pregnant women should have a blood lead level (BLL) of 4.9 micrograms or less. Then I remembered that I have all of my test results from my initial dr visit (at ~7wks) in a PDF file (from when I was switching dr's.) I was able to look up the results of all my blood tests, and I was indeed tested for BLL. It is <2.0. A bigger sigh of relief was never heard than the one that escaped my body. I'm still going to wait to hear back from my dr as to her recommendations, and I think that I may consider being retested just in case.
Re: Leaded Solder at Workstation
An update: as my anxiety continued to grow, I looked up the info on the CDC website myself. I read the pregnant women should have a blood lead level (BLL) of 4.9 micrograms or less. Then I remembered that I have all of my test results from my initial dr visit (at ~7wks) in a PDF file (from when I was switching dr's.) I was able to look up the results of all my blood tests, and I was indeed tested for BLL. It is <2.0. A bigger sigh of relief was never heard than the one that escaped my body.
I'm still going to wait to hear back from my dr as to her recommendations, and I think that I may consider being retested just in case.