Printing Plastisol--Pregnant???

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

No, not me. That'd be a big deal you'd hear about on the news!

But I'm going to be right there--one of these days--with one of my part timers.

She has ZERO to do with other chemistry, and is just a press op. Fabulous... but that's all I'll let her do. And 3+ years loading shirts makes her somebody I don't want to send home for 9 months, unless it could be January and February spread out over several years. I don't think it works that way.

I'm the LEAST "GREEN" guy on this board in all liklihood, but I've been dreading this whole Printing While Pregnant question for a while now. June'll be 2 years since their wedding and there's been no announcement yet....  (But she's been acting weird.)

So.

Can anybody here weigh in with advice??

[ZooCity]

Non phthalate inks should be fine.  Ventilated?  I might be more concerned with the stuff in the shirts at times. 

Congrats!

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[Itsa Little CrOoked]

No no, I've no idea whether she is or Isn't.

I wasn't clear on that particular point.  But its inevitable.

No Chris, my flashes aren't exausted at all. Tunnel, yes.

[mimosatexas]

Get extra exhausts for your flashes, use non phthalate everything, etc.  Might provide a high quality mask to cover your bases, which she can use if she wants.  Allow for lots of extra piss breaks...

[tancehughes]

Our main press operator was pregnant last fall. She was fine. We let her have more breaks and definitely keep her away from reclaim, but to simply load and setup/tear down she was fine really.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I've been letting her print Waterbased Discharge but I think I'll stop that, just in case. We don't flash it, usually... and if we do, I print them myself. We can't smell it if it only runs through the conveyor. But definitely no DC for this gal, if and when....well....you know.

But I would love to add an exhaust vent to at least one flash. And then I'd feel better about plastisol in this theoretical situation.

Thing is, in her other life, she's a hairdresser. Who knows what all kinds of nasties are in that stuff!

When she started to work for us, she was single and not even really dating. And I always figured at some point there'd be no reclaim, no press wash, no WB DC and no squeegee or tool cleaning chems. I'm just less confident about it going forward.

And Mimosa, we are Phthalate free at this point.  The mask might be a good idea though.