Karen Wetterhahn - Legacy

Legacy

Karen Wetterhahn's death shocked not only the entire chemistry department but even regulatory agencies, as the accidental exposure occurred despite her having taken all required measures known at that time. These included the use of latex gloves, a fume hood, and adherence to standard safety procedures. After Wetterhahn's mercury poisoning was discovered, her colleagues tested various safety gloves against dimethylmercury and found that the small, apolar molecule diffuses through most of them in seconds, much faster than expected. As a result, it is now recommended to wear highly resistant, flexible, plastic-laminate gloves when handling dimethylmercury and other equally dangerous substances. For increased protection, such thin gloves can be worn under long-cuffed, heavy-duty outer gloves made of, for example, neoprene.

At the time, dimethylmercury was the common calibration standard for 199Hg NMR spectroscopy because it has certain advantages over the alternatives that exist. As a consequence of Wetterhahn's accident, recommendations and MSDS sheets have been revised, and the use of dimethylmercury has been highly discouraged.

Dartmouth College has since established an award in Wetterhahn's name to encourage other women to pursue careers in science. Whenever possible, preference is given to a woman in granting the award. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences also maintains an annual award, for a graduate student or post-doctoral researcher, in honor of Karen Wetterhahn.

Wetterhahn helped establish Dartmouth College’s Women in Science Project (WISP), which helped to raise the share of women science majors from 13 to 25 percent at Dartmouth College and has become a national model.