Karen Wetterhahn

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Karen Wetterhahn (1949 - June 8, 1997) was a well-known professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire, United States) specializing in toxic metal exposure. On August 14, 1996 while working with an organic mercury compound called dimethylmercury, she spilled a drop or two on her latex glove. Five months later, she noticed some neurologic symptoms such as loss of balance and slurred speech. She was admitted to the hospital, where it was discovered that the single exposure to dimethylmercury had raised her blood mercury level to 4,000 micrograms per liter, or 20 times the toxic threshold. Toxic blood level is reported to be > 200 μg/L, normal range is 1-8 μg/L.^[1] Despite aggressive chelation therapy, her condition rapidly deteriorated and three weeks after first symptoms appeared she fell into a coma and died a few months later, less than a year after her initial exposure.

Wetterhahn's death, despite the use of gloves, a fume hood, and adherence to standard safety procedures, shocked her chemistry department. They tested various safety gloves against dimethylmercury, apparently for the first time ever, and found that the small, apolar molecule diffuses through most of them in seconds, much faster than expected. Dimethylmercury was the common calibration standard for ¹⁹⁹Hg NMR spectroscopy, as it has certain advantages over the alternatives that exist.^[2] OSHA recommendations^[3] and MSD Sheets^[4] were changed in consequence and use of dimethylmercury has been highly discouraged.

Dartmouth has established an award in her name to encourage other women in science.