Q&A: paint fumes affecting a fetus (updated)

Angie jumps right to the front of the long queue with this:

"I just arrived at my parents house for Christmas, with my partner and 10-month-old baby.  I am 15 weeks pregnant, and haven't told anyone as I'm waiting for the amnio results.  We found out as we arrived that my mother painted the whole house a week ago with both latex and oil paint, to spruce up for the holidays.  A little shortsighted, since she lives in New England and it is too cold to leave the windows open.  Despite trying to air out the fumes for a week, the house reeks in all rooms, including where we are sleeping.  I am miserable because of my superhuman sense of smell due to the pregnancy, but I am especially worried about exposure to the fumes for the fetus, as well as for the 10-week old.  We are supposed to stay here for a week, which I am not sure I can stand.

Do you have any input or thoughts, or better skills than I at extracting specific info from the internet?"

Who leaves people hanging for amnio results over a holiday weekend?!

I wish I could say, "Don't worry--it's totally fine," but I obviously can't. On the other hand, I wouldn't spend much time worrying about it for two reasons. The first is that the rooms were painted a week ago so the paint is dry, and it's just the smells and chemicals outgassing, not actual wet paint fumes. Is there any chance that the house is one of those charmingly drafty New England homes, the kind with high heating costs and no danger of radon scares? If so, then you have even less to worry about.

The other thing that makes me not worry so much is that you're in your 15th week. From what we're learning about fetal alcohol exposure, weeks 3-6 appear to be the most critical for staying away from exposure to damaging toxins, but the rest of the first trimester is also the time of greatest and most significant development. A day or two of exposure to smelly paint fumes at 15 weeks is hardly the same as it would be at 5 weeks.

If you want to leave the house, you'll have to bring up the highly legitimate concern of whether your 10-month-old baby should be exposed to paint fumes. It sounds like your mother just wasn't thinking clearly, and thought the fumes would be gone by now, because surely she wouldn't want to expose her grandchild to the fumes. Use that to get you out of the house as much as possible, even if it's just to go stand by the back door inhaling some clean air, or going out to post-holiday sales, or going to visit other people. You can always use the old standby of blaming your pediatrician as an excuse to get out as much as possible.

(FWIW, when I was nine weeks pregnant with my second, my aunt highlighted my hair for me. When I went to wash it out in the shower the fan in the bathroom was broken. I was sucking down hot ammonia steam for a solid 10 minutes, trying desperately to get it out of my hair and my system. I still look at him and wonder if he wouldn't bite me so much if I hadn't inhaled all that ammonia. I don't really think it did him any harm, but I also don't think I'll ever stop feeling guilty about it completely.)

I hope your amnio results come back with no cause for concern.

Are there any toxicologists reading who know more about paint fumes specifically? Or anyone else to offer pseudo-comforting toxin exposure stories like my ammonia confession?

UPDATE: Reader Sarah reminds me that the best place to find out info about any kind of prenatal exposure is to call the counselors at OTIS, the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists.  Their number is 1-866-626-OTIS.  They are experts at giving pregnant women information about all sorts of situations like this -- this is the service the CDC refers women to when they call about exposure issues.

Thanks, Sarah!  

Comments

[yetanotherjen]

literally the day after I learned I was pregnant I was walking to work through the housing project near my apartment, and I looked up to see 3 workers in white hazmat suits spraying something around the benches in teh green area. I have no idea what it was, but I will never forget the feelign of being trapped (had to walk a good block or two to really get away from it). Baby is 4 weeks old now, and she seems great! We'll see if she turns into a cockroach one day, though.

[luolin]

Count me as another woman waiting for amnio results on 12/26. I don't know anything about paint, though.

[Christine]

Too late for the writer, but if anyone else is considering painting, Harmony paint emits no VOC's and is low-fume. We're using it to paint our kitchen now and I can barely smell it while I'm painting and once it's dry there's literally no odor. Love the stuff.

[Heather]

When they say 3-6 weeks, are they referring to 3 to 6 weeks post implantation? I am assuming this is the case, as the medical definition of pregnancy is when implantation occurs...but then it's confusing because we count the number of weeks pregnant from LMP...any wisdom on this? Or just some clarification?

[Alison S]

If you read the article Moxie links to, it says that during the first 2 weeks after conception, exposure to high levels of alcohol is more likely to cause death and miscarriage of the embryo than malformation, and that the highest risk period for malformation is week 3-6, because that's when the organs are forming. So I think they are definitely meaning 3-6 weeks post implantation, ie. 5-7 weeks from LMP.

[Angela]

Another resource for chemical exposures during pregnancy is www.motherisk.org. I didn't find much on paint except this about occupational exposures:

http://www.motherisk.org/prof/updatesDetail.jsp?content_id=318

[Rayne of Terror]

SHerwin Williams also offers a low VOC paint, but you have to ask for it. It's made for hospitals. We used it in our attic (because I worked there at the time and got a can of mis-tint) and you could hardly smell a thing. Oil paint on the other hand - whew! Stinky. My MIL painted her guest bedroom with the cheapest stinkiest latex paint ever while I was pregnant and we slept there once. I also painted the entire interior of our old home pregnant when we were trying to get it on the market. I guess having grown up the daughter of a house painter I'm lax about it, but it mostly doesn't bother me and my son is too perfect.

[AinH]

I literally pushed through a "Danger, Do Not Enter" strip to get to a computer lab at school (thinking "this can't mean *me*), only to find out that there had been a major multi-computer explosion in that hallway, when I was pregnant. I totally freaked out. And cursed my stupidity. Baby boy seems fine now, though one always wonders, eh?

And, um, doesn't it suck that drinking is worst when many women don't yet know that they're pregnant? I guess it doesn't affect those of us who start testing a week after ovulation, but still...

[swimmermom]

IMO you were very right to be concerned about the paint fumes. The stuff you are/were smelling in the house is VOCs -- volatile organic compounds -- and it IS the bad stuff that you don't want to be exposed to during pregnancy. VOCs and alcohol are very different substances that probably affect a growing fetus in different ways / at different stages of gestation. Off the top of my head I remember that maternal VOC exposure during pregnancy is linked to increased risk of allergies in the baby including asthma and atopy. It's also linked to greater risk of ear infections, respiratory infections, and diarrhea. Try googling "voc exposure pregnancy" maybe adding "fetus" or "paint" to narrow it down if needed (I would get started for you except that I'm on deadline for something else and shouldn't even be reading Ask Moxie lol!). If I hadn't loaned out my copy of Sandra Steingraber's excellent book _Having Faith_ I would look through that for information too.

I guess this is all moot for the original poster (since it's now Jan 1st and her visit is probably over) but wanted to put it out there for future readers.

[mercy igbinigie]

plsprivate. i am 42yr old.l.m.p 26/12/06,buti bleed slighty for 2days 4&5/1/07.apart from my breast heaviness/nipple pains ,also my desire for sex increased. am i pregnant

[Maria]

I'm 8 weeks pregnant, we had our house painted w/ oil based paints 2 and a half weeks ago. I didn't know the painter was going to be using these, otherwise I would have thought twice. I've stayed w/ friends and at hotels for the past two weeks, and my house still smells terrible. We've placed two hepa filters in it, cooked onions, placed baking powder in bowls around the house, opened windows....nothing seems to be working. I'm really wanting to come home, and I can't see any material online indicating when it may be OK to do so. I've spent a couple hours here and there in my house and I'm worried this has done damage. Does anyone have any info for me, it would be very helpful.

[beth]

I called Teratology Information Specialists just a minute ago and was told that latex paint is not a concern at all even if you work as a painter using latex paint during anytime in your pregnancy. However, she did say that being exposed to oil based paint over a PROLONGED period could be a problem. If you have concerns, please call Teratology Specialists - she was very helpful.

[Carla Jakubowski]

I'm just freaking out as well. I am ten weeks pregnant and my room is being painted. Last night I slept on the couch, but you can definitely smell the paint fumes. I'm so worried that I hurt my baby. What was I thinking?!!!

[Julie]

I also spoke to the Teratology Information Specialists a few minutes ago about exposure to wood stain fumes. (I've found a lot of information online about paint fumes, but nothing on stain.)

In any case, the woman I spoke to said there's a big difference between smelling something and inhaling it. She used the example of someone trying to get high by sniffing glue, and said that to have any effect, you'd really have to try hard and sniff like 3 or 4 bottles by sticking a straw up your nose. And that's the kind of exposure they're talking about when they refer to inhalation of fumes potentially causing birth defects.

I told her I was concerned because we had some wood staining done at our house last week. I wore a ventilator while they were doing the work, so I wasn't too worried at the time because I couldn't smell it, but the fumes have been lingering now for a week and I've been getting more and more concerned about longer-term (although low) exposure. But she said the same thing again about smelling vs. inhaling and said that it's extremely unlikely that it could be harmful.

[Isabelle]

I am very worried too about exposure to paint fumes. I am now 8 weeks + 3 and this afternoon, I had an acupuncture treatment (I had two miscarriages and am trying something different). When I went into the room, it smelled like paint, but not too bad. At the end of the treatment (45 minutes), the smelled had become really strong and I had to leave the room because I felt too nauseous. The painting was taking place in the hall and I am not sure what sort of paint they were using. Now I am really worried... and wondering if smelling it is an indication of toxicity or if, as previous poster said, I would have to have sniffed the paint pot for it to be damaging... Oh dear...

[eric]

AinH - is right on.

this is a dumb comment, "The first is that the rooms were painted a week ago so the paint is dry, and it's just the smells and chemicals outgassing, not actual wet paint fumes."

It is the outgassing that is the problem, not the fresh paint.

[SheriBaby]

Thanks so much for all the great info, especially Julie regarding fumes from wood stain. We're in the process of renos and people have been staining floors and painting the walls and although all the doors and windows have been open for ventilation, I worried about exposure. I may be pregnant - still too soon to test I think - but was really worried about inhaling fumes every time I went over to check on the work.

I do believe that real risk lies in occupational exposure over extended periods of time so the posts here really made me feel better. The smells are still driving me nuts and I'm getting headaches every time I go over, but I wonder if that's mostly because I'm feeling stressed about the fumes! :)