Lab needle incident

DOes anyone have any experience of working in a laboratory with chemicals and the syring piercing through your glove into your skin?

this was a trace organics lab. what or how long would i wait for symptoms? many thanks, SA

[caregiver222]

You left out the most important fact.

What was the substance in the syringe?

You need to look at the MSDA for the chemical.

Some substances are merely corrosive. These wounds will heal completely.

Other substances are carcinogenic and mutagenic.

A tiny amount is unlikely to cause a malignancy.

[sallyann27]

thanks for reply. most of the contents were carcinogenic or mutagenic but in trace amounts.

[caregiver222]

Bear in mind that the human body with a normal immune system scavanges malignancies on a daily basis. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha is generated in response to an abnormal growth, for example.

The answer you seek comes under the category of "unknown".

My gut feeling, having been exposed to such agents in the past, is that this is unlikely. The latency period is often very long, however and nobody can say for sure.

A lot depends upon the specific agent. Generally such agents generate free radicals which do the damage. You won't be generating a large quantity of radicals with an infinitesimal exposure.