Ethidium Bromide (EtBr) on my pants, left it for over 2 hours unrinsed!

Question

I prepared my gel this morning at 9:30. At 12:00 when I was heading for lunch I noticed my pants had a red spot of EtBr. I remember a drop of it getting splashed out of the fumehood when I was using it for gel but I never thought it landed on my pants.

What should I do.. OMG OMG I wiped the spot five times with paper towels soaked in water but when I noticed it on my pants it was already dried out. I know that when your cloth catches it you should immediately take it off and isolate it but I found out about it too late..

My pants is thin so I believe it didn't really protect my skin.

I heard EtBr is not easily absorbed through skin but still I'M FREAKING OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please help.... I can't "seek medical attention" right now because it's too late and I'm stuck in lab until 8:00pm today..

OMG I'm soooooooooooo depressed and can't do anything right now, I just can't concentrate.

Please don't leave a comment if you're going to post something like "What is EtBr"..

Answer 1

here Is the best information:

http://ehs.ucsc.edu/lab_research_safety/...

It shouldn't kill you or make you apprecreciably ill but it might cause skin problems where it contacted you. Any problem should be heralded by local irritation.

If any of it was adsorbed, you should have a visible red spot on the skin from the dye.

Answer 2

Ethidium bromide is a mutagen, suspected carcinogen and at high concentrations is irritating to the eyes, skin, mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract[citation needed]. The health effects of ethidium bromide exposure have not been thoroughly investigated. It is suspected to be carcinogenic and teratogenic because of its mutagenicity, although there is no direct evidence of either effect. The toxic effects of ethidium bromide may be experienced if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. However, ethidium bromide is not easily absorbed through the skin because of positive charge and bulky structure.

So, its not good to get it in contact with skin, but such a small dab on your pants wont do anything... trust me, I have spilled way worse than that on myself over my years as a chemist.  go home, wash the pants, wash your leg and you are good.  

Answer 3

lol good quote straight from wiki^^

but he's right, especially if it was at lower concentrations. you should be perfectly fine

Answer 4

I agree with the posts above.  I'd be freaking out too, and personally I only handle concentrated ethidium bromide with a lab coat, double-gloved, and safety glasses (people make fun of me for this, mind you), but there's nothing to do about it at this point.  It's a mutagen; the worst imaginary scenario one can come up with in an overly-active imagination is skin cancer in 20 years.

Which I still don't have after the "spraying 1 mCi of 32-P-labeled cell extracts in phenol all over myself" incident of 1980.  If you work in labs, stuff happens.  Freaking out doesn't help, and I wish I hadn't tossed my favorite flannel shirt, when it would have been completely nonradioactive by 1981.