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Mercur xpoure Kill Dartmouth Profeor

JUNE 11, 1997

A Dartmouth College chemistry professor has died from exposure to a rare

form of mercury, first synthesized more than 130 years ago.

Karen E. Wetterhahn, 48, who also had served as an associate dean and a
dean at the college, died on Sunday, about 10 months after accidentally
spilling a few drops of dimethylmercury on her disposable latex gloves
while performing a laboratory experiment. The substance, which has no
practical application, is used in research on heavy metals.

Prof. John S. Winn, chairman of the college's chemistry department, said

Professor Wetterhahn was an internationally recognized leader in the study
of how heavy metals can initiate cancer at the molecular level.
Dimethylmercury is so rare that it is only in use in perhaps 100 laboratories
worldwide at any given time, he said.

Through a search of medical literature, the college determined that

exposure to the substance killed two laboratory assistants in 1865, shortly
after it was first synthesized, and a 28-year-old chemist in 1971.

Although she washed her hands after the accident, Professor Winn said, ''I
just don't think she had any idea of the peril she was in when the spill
occurred.''

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