Pregnant vets `in danger’ warning
Dayton, Leigh; Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 04 Apr 2008: 8.
Show highlighting
Abstract
“Female veterinarians, particularly those of childbearing age, should be fully informed of the possible reproductive effects of ionising radiation (X-rays), unscavenged anaesthetic gases and exposure to pesticides,” the researchers said in a report published in thejournal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
“These issues were less well covered in training in the ’60s and ’70s. There’s been a gradual improvement over time,” said Associate Professor [Lin Fritschi] with the University of Western Australia’s Western Australian Institute for Medical Research.
“Awareness is the issue,” said Professor Fritschi. “There are ways to prevent exposures. That’s the positive message.”
Full Text
FEMALE vets are twice as likely to miscarry as a result of exposure to anaesthetic gases, radiation and pesticides.
The discovery, made by Australian and British researchers, has prompted calls for authorities to provide clear advice to women aboutthe risks they face if they choose to become pregnant.
“Female veterinarians, particularly those of childbearing age, should be fully informed of the possible reproductive effects of ionising radiation (X-rays), unscavenged anaesthetic gases and exposure to pesticides,” the researchers said in a report published in thejournal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Unscavenged gases are those exhaled, unfiltered, by an anaesthetised animal into the operating theatre.
Sydney veterinarian Bronwyn Walker takes care to avoid anything other than the occasional nip, kick or scratch from the animals she treats.
The 33-year-old also protects herself from the less obvious hazards of her profession: exposure to anaesthetic gases, pesticides and diagnostic X-ray emissions.
“I myself take precautions every day. During my training we were advised of the risks of radiation and anaesthetics, in particular,” said Dr Walker, a small animal specialist with the North Shore Veterinary Hospital.
According to epidemiologist and team leader Lin Fritschi, younger vets like Dr Walker are getting the message.
But she said those who graduated in the 1960s and 1970s were likely to ignore the occupational health and safety standards guidelines regarding the exposures.
“These issues were less well covered in training in the ’60s and ’70s. There’s been a gradual improvement over time,” said Associate Professor Fritschi with the University of Western Australia’s Western Australian Institute for Medical Research.
Along with colleagues at the UWA and Imperial College London, Professor Fritschi tracked the trends and risks using data from theHealth Risks to Australian Veterinarians (HRAV) project, a questionnaire-based survey of all graduates from Australian veterinary schools from 1960 to 2000.
Of the 5748 eligible vets sent the questionnaires, 2800 replied, including 1197 women. Between them, the women reported a total of 1355 pregnancies, 940 of which occurred while they worked in a clinical practice.
The researchers compared the outcomes of their pregnancies to vets who were not working when they became pregnant. They have roughly the same miscarriage rate as women in the general population, roughly 15 per cent of all pregnancies.
Professor Fritishi and her colleagues found that women carrying out surgery and exposed to unscavenged anaesthetic gases, for an hour a more per week, were 2.5 times more likely to have miscarried than those who didn’t.
Vets who used pesticides during work were 1.9 times as likely to have miscarried. And those who conducted over five diagnostic X-rays a week were 1.8 times to have miscarried than those performing fewer procedures.
“Awareness is the issue,” said Professor Fritschi. “There are ways to prevent exposures. That’s the positive message.”
The team also used the HRAV data to reveal the high incidence of injuries vets face from animals.
About half of all vets, male and female, reported at least one serious injury that required admission to hospital or a week or more’s absence from work. A quarter had a serious injury during the previous year.