Working While Pregnant
Occupational Health Clinic
Occupational Health, Vanderbilt Environmental Health and Safety (VEHS) and Vanderbilt Infection Control and Prevention have safeguards in place to help you protect your unborn baby while you work at Vanderbilt.
Working With Formaldehyde
Occupational Health Clinic
Formaldehyde is a chemical used in embalming and tissue preservation, as well as in cold sterilization. Acute exposure to formaldehyde may result in pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs), central nervous system (CNS) depression, or pneumonitis (inflammation of the lung tissue). Chronic exposure may cause irritation of the skin, mucous membranes or respiratory tract. Repeated exposure to formaldehyde may result in an allergic response. It is also a potential carcinogen. Primary exposure routes are inhalation and skin absorption.
Working with Radioactive Iodine
Occupational Health Clinic
When patients are treated with radioactive iodine, their blood and body fluids such as urine and vomit can contain the radioactive drug. Caregivers should understand the risks of exposure. There are two different types of radiation risks:
Thyroid exposure: Having the radioactive iodine absorbed by your thyroid gland.
External beam radiation: Getting radiation exposure from the contaminated body fluids, just like you would from an X-ray.
Preventing thyroid exposure
Vanderbilt Surveillance Program Screening Requirements
Occupational Health Clinic
Compliance with all applicable Vanderbilt Occupational Health medical surveillance and fitness for duty programs is required and compliance status is automatically imported into the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Performance Evaluation System (VPES).
Varicella (Chicken Pox)
Occupational Health Clinic
Chickenpox is normally a fairly mild childhood illness caused by the varicella virus. Humans are the only source of infection for this highly contagious virus. Humans are infected by person to person transmission when virus comes in contact with upper respiratory tract or eyes and by contact with lesion drainage from someone with chickenpox.
Toxoplasmosis
Occupational Health Clinic
A parasite called Toxoplasma gondii causes a disease known as toxoplasmosis. Most adults have already had toxoplasmosis; toxoplasmosis shows few or no symptoms 90% of the time. However, pregnant women and individuals with weakened immune systems should be cautious.
Tuberculosis
Occupational Health Clinic
Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne disease which can be detected with skin testing.
Simian Herpes B
Occupational Health Clinic
Because macaques can carry a virus that is deadly to humans, workers need to know how to reduce their risk of exposure as well as what to do if they get exposed.
RSV Exposure in Pregnancy
Occupational Health Clinic
Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV is one of the many cold-type upper respiratory infections that most of us acquire during the cold and flu season. For premature or medically-frail infants, the infection could become very serious, even fatal. RSV is a paramyxovirus and there are 2 types, A and B.
Rubella
Occupational Health Clinic
Rubella (German Measles) is a highly contagious viral illness with symptoms very similar to rubeola (red measles, commonly referred to simply as "measles") but differs in the severity of symptoms and length of illness. The most serious threat of rubella is to the pregnant female who has never had rubella. If exposed to rubella, she can contract the disease which can cause serious problems for the unborn baby.