Thread: White Spirit In an Open Jam Jar - Effects on Pregnancy

Hi,

Sorry to trouble your forum but I'm in very bad need of someone who can help with a problem and I don't know who to ask.

My wife is currently 30 weeks pregnant. In the corner of Kitchen the other day we found a open jam jar with white spirit in it about %40 full and paint brushes. I stupidly left it in the kitchen when decorating months and months ago not really thinking about any health hazards.

My wife looked into it on the internet and it comes back with how bad white spirit can be for pregnant women and now we are both in quite a panic. Unfortunately all tests I can find are done with stong vapour concentrations and there is nothing that says about very low exposure to white spirit.

You can only smell the white spirit when right next to the jar and from my searching on the net when you first smell it, the concentration in the air is around 0.5-5 mg/m3

From the tests I can find on the internet which were conducted on pregnant rats,the values used were around 5700 mg/m3 6 hours a day for 3-20 days and that showed birth defects.

When the values were around 600 - 1800mg/m3 6 hours a day for 6-15 days there were no detectable birth defects.

As we have not smelt it round the house, it that a sure way of knowing the levels have been low (below 0.5 -5mg/m3) and of no risk?

People advise pregnant women not to use white spirit which I guess is because they will be subjecting themselves to high levels of vapor while in use.
What I would like help with is an undisturbed open jar not giving off much smell in the corner of a room a problem or are we worrying about nothing.

Any help / advice you could offer would be very greatly appreciated.

I'm sure the exposure would probably only have been present in the kitchen; she probably wasnt exposed 24/7.

Furthermore; I dont know where you got the measurements of the white spirits but the concentrations used in those experiments sounds very high.

If you are worried; bring it up with your obstetrician; Im sure any problems would have come up on check ups.

I cant guarantee anything but I seriously doubt that the levels would be sufficient to cause significant problems. You probably have nothing to worry about.

and what would you do if you were exposed at a potentially siginficant concentration?

Originally Posted by 9000rpm

found a open jam jar with white spirit in it about %40 full... left it in the kitchen when decorating months and months ago

Notice how very slowly it evaporates at the bottom of a jar vs. open air in a rag?

Put this in perspective. Your wife's British right? Then she's the healthy product of countless generations who lived in claustrophobic homes fueled by horribly designed coal stoves, and open fire-pits before that. They used to open windows and dust the soot out twice a week. LOL my Scottish grandma believed a home needs its walls and ceilings washed regularly. That is heavy pollution. And we're just fine. Over less than a century we've built a naive belief that nontoxic environment is natural to our species.

Your wife's "panic" certainly does affect the baby. Take it easy ...and congratulations.

Pong- potential exposure in previous generations doesn't equate to general resistance to the alleged fumes here. Are there specific data to support your point of natural selection to this resistance?

Not these particular chemicals. Good catch.

But I wouldn't call huddling over smoking pits since the invention of fire a "potential exposure". My point is the fact that we're even having this discussion proves our tolerance to a wide range of pollutants, in concentrations unthinkable by today's standards.

" tolerance to a wide range of pollutants, in concentrations unthinkable by today's standards."

Can you elaborate on that - are there data to this claim?

This is straying off topic. If you're interested Jorge1907 have a look at paleolithic dwellings and the kinds of heating/cooking fuels burned inside those cramped structures.

Prehistoric soot means nothing to the point. If this is all you have to support your proposal - forget it.