Doctor tells inquiry sterilising chemical caused three miscarriages

A tearful Northland doctor has told a ministerial inquiry that a workplace chemical caused her to miscarry three times.

Kaitaia GP Linda Boyle was among several health professionals who claimed exposure to dangerous workplace chemicals had ruined their lives and careers.

The allegations surfaced at a ministerial inquiry, before barrister Denis Clifford in Whangarei, into the management of the chemical glutaraldehyde, other aldehydes and solvents in workplaces. Northland hospitals used glutaraldehyde to sterilise surgical equipment and in radiology departments.

This week Dr Boyle said she went from practically running her own practice to being able to work only one half-day a week.

She had been pregnant when she returned to her practice to find that glutaraldehyde had been introduced as a sterilising agent. She later went into premature labour, but the baby, now 9, survived.

In tears, Dr Boyle described how she had since miscarried three times. Subsequent tests showed that one of the foetuses had genetic abnormalities.

Former Kaitaia Hospital radiographer Dianne Phillips, 48, said she had regularly used the chemicals at work. Her first signs of the illness occurred in 1990. The next year she tried to get conditions in the radiology department improved.

As her condition worsened her GP, Linda Boyle, gave her three months off work until the department was improved. On her return to work, she found that not all the improvements had been done.

She quit her job at the end of 1991 after ACC accepted her claim.

Former radiology nurse Andrea Hartnell said a neuropsychological assessment revealed that she now had a mental age of a 13-year-old.

The inquiry is to submit its report to Labour Minister Margaret Wilson by May 30.

- NZPA