I work in a lab doing various water analysis. Although I had only been in my current position for about three week, I told my supervisor as soon as I knew I was pregnant so I could avoid handling anything that might affect the baby. There was another lady who had a baby last year, so a risk assessment has already been done. If I am unsure about any chemical I ask my supervisor or head chemist.

Then today the head chemist asked if I could test for phenols. I asked if it was o.k and she said she didn't see any reason why not. I thought it sounded a bit wrong, so I googled it and pregnant women are not even supposed to eat lozenges with phenols in them let alone handle high concentration standards. It turns out the original risk assessment has gone missing and they have been telling me things either from memory or just because they don't think that it would do any harm.

I am now trying to find a list of known teratogens so I know for myself what I can and can't handle.

It is so annoying, hopefully I haven't been exposed to anything that could damage the baby. I have been careful with gloves etc so hopefully not a big deal but I just can't understand why they didn't tell me it was missing and get me to do a new one.