Guild of Scenic Artists: As an industrial hygienist, I am frequently asked by women what precautions they can take at work to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy. It should come as no surprise that many of these women are artists. Perhaps no other profession is so widely all-encompassing in terms of production materials and the variety of “products” a worker can be asked to produce. And for these women, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I don’t have a magic, comprehensive list of products or chemicals for you to use, that will allow you rock-solid confidence in their non-toxicity. The good news is that you do have the power to protect yourself and your baby, using a lot of common sense, a little bit of systematic planning, and knowledge, which will empower you to make deliberate decisions about the work environment and materials you accept.
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A lot of women, particularly in industries that require manual labor and interaction with potentially harmful substances, often wonder if it will be viable for them to continue to work throughout their pregnancies. It often becomes a choice between having a family and continuing to work, a tough decision between two emotionally involved options. While much of the decision is made for them, with workplace supervisors unwilling to take the risk or support pregnant employees, it is encouraging to see that resources like this exist to help women make educated decisions on their own behalf. Instead of basing their choice to continue working on an unfounded fear of unsustainability or on someone else’s misguided opinion, they can look to actual research which is becoming more and more readily available and more women work. This would be particularly helpful for freelancers to determine their own capabilities to maintain a healthy pregnancy.
I have never thought too much about what working in this industry as a parent is like, but I figured it would be difficult. Looking at that subject from the point of view of someone who is pregnant, as this article does, has really caused me to see this perspective as something much more pertinent than I once thought. So many of the materials we use even just for Design 1 are toxic or dangerous, and thus we have rules for how to use them safely. I cannot imagine how careful one would have to be when they are living with pregnancy as well. There are so many extra precautions that must be taken to fully ensure the health of their growing child. I’m glad resources like this article exist so people have somewhere to turn to for information on what could be putting them in harm’s way while they’re on the job.
This article was very different than I thought it was going to be based on the title. I thought it was going to be something about how painting while pregnant can calm you down or help with the process or something, and thought it was a sort of weird thing to put on this blog. However, I clicked it anyway and was confronted with a much more interesting article: the DANGERS of painting while pregnant (and even when you’re not pregnant if you want to be at some point in the future). It was interesting, and very eye-opening because I’m pretty sure I do a lot of these things right now and not always in the best ways possible. I used a lot of aerosols in high school without being educated on the dangers of them and that kind of worries me. Since I’ve gotten to CMU, I now always use the spray hood, respirators, and take whatever precautions are needed to protect myself, but even then, it still can feel unsafe at times. I don’t think I’d want to even risk harming my baby if I were pregnant so it would be very difficult it I had a job in a paint shop or somewhere like that where I could be exposed to harmful chemicals.
It is such a warm thing to see people trying to bring this topic to the table for more discussions. Not only in theatrical scene, women carrying a child is historically labeled as unsuitable to work, or should engaging jobs are less physically active such as paperwork. But now here we are, we have made a great progress on bringing these kinds of tips rather than just denying their existence. The article talked about deeply into materials used in the paint shop, analyzing them and break down the scientific arguments about whether they are suitable or not. There's no denying the paint materials are always harmful to the fragile little lives that just making their first steps into the world, but knowing why and how to avoid the bad parts is the first right thing for us to improve our working environment in my opinion.
I feel like being pregnant is already an extremely stressful time because you have to worry about the health of two. I feel like staying away from any toxins or chemicals in terms of any thing on or in your body, is a good idea just to be safe. The article goes on to explain the difference between trauma from toxin mutation and from birth defectives. It makes a lot of sense that birth defects happen during the birth of the baby where as toxin stress has more so to do with the development of the baby during the pregnancy process, where it is easy to consume something that would be considered “toxic” for your baby. The article said all solvents are best to stray away from. Solvents including anything topical such as certain creams like self tanners to specific thinners that expose you to toxins from the paint. Even hair dye in considered a toxin when pregnant because anything that can go through into your bloodstream is something to be cautious of.
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