Scientist spills few drops of mercury on her latex glove. She would spend the next 10 months fighting for her life

In the Summer of 1997 scientist Karen Wetterhahn died of poisoning. Her death was the result of a seemingly harmless mistake that she thought nothing of at the time, however, over the course of 10 months her condition would slowly deteriorate until she succumbed to the poison.

Wetterhahn, 48, was working at Dartmouth college, studying the effects of heavy metals on living organisms according to an article from science.org. The incident occurred in August of 1996, she had been working with a substance known as dimethyl mercury. According to the head of the Dartmouth chemistry department, John Winn, “She was taking what any of us would have considered prudent and reasonable precautions.” 

She had been using a hood to protect herself from fumes, a face shield, and latex gloves. However, it simply wasn’t enough.

What happened to Karen Wetterhahn?

While working with the dangerous chemical in the lab, Wetterhahn accidentally spilled a tiny amount, described as being no more than a few drops, on her latex glove. Karen thought nothing of it at the time but unbeknownst to her, the highly volatile substance had almost instantly passed through the latex material of her gloves and made contact with her skin.

Wetterhahn wasn’t alone in underestimating how dangerous the substance she was dealing with really was. Winn stated that “I don’t think any of us recognized,” how penetrating dimethyl mercury could be.

Over the next ten months the poison slowly killed Karen

For a while Wetterhahn continued as normal but five months after the exposure she began experiencing some concerning symptoms. She had trouble with balance, speech, vision, and hearing and was soon hospitalized. In January of 1997, she was diagnosed with mercury poisoning with her blood levels being 80 times higher than what is considered the regular threshold for toxicity. In February she went into a coma.

Unfortunately for Wetterhahn, it was already too late. Over the next four months she would continue to deteriorate and eventually passed away in June. Her death was a wake up call for Dartmouth college. Following Wetterhahn’s passing, new protocols were brought in with chemists required to wear two pairs of gloves with one of them being laminated. Winn also said “We’re trying to urge the chemical community to establish a safer substitute,” in place of dimethyl mercury.

Karen’s story is a frightening example of how quickly things can go wrong in a science lab. When dealing with highly volatile chemicals it’s always better to be safe than sorry, while many may have assumed the latex would provide enough protection that evidently wasn’t the case.