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U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration I|lrr April 1975 Vol. 3 No. 4 |j^ WOMEN WORKERS: ARE THEY SPECIAL? BFS 005362 ii I am strong, I am invincible, I am Marrctt, a University of Wisconsin soci woman," sang Helen Reddy in a ologist, oilers some explanations. "Today song that has become almost an there are few of the obvious abuses to anthem for the women's movement. The women workers that often were the rallying lyrics may be a forceful rallying cry, but the points for both reformers and researchers in fact is that women arc not invincible. And previous decades," she says. "Perhaps even neither are men. The human body, of cither more problematic is the fact that concern sex, does indeed fall prey to the various as for women's occupational health seems in saults of the workplace. consistent with the current thrust toward Traditionally, working women have been equality." shunted off into "women's jobs" because In the old days there were abuses aplenty. they were the "weaker sex." This reasoning Shocked by stories of deplorable working was a handy excuse for job discrimination. conditions, Congress in 1908 funded a study And as many women have known all along, of the problems of working women. At about hazardous conditions often lurked behind the same time, an investigation of phos the guise of "protection." phorous match factories revealed serious As women, with the force of law behind poisoning among the industry's 2,540 work them, move into "men's jobs," they share ers, about half of whom were women and men's exposures to the full range of safety children. The phosphorous poisoning caused and health hazards. And again the question degeneration of the bones, especially the comes up: Do men and women react differ jaw, producing jrilorrible deformity known ently to job stresses and toxic subs es?T fp Obviously, there's onTJei7^b^kie: ,ncey ^ fj rs rater, in 1912, 154 women between the sexes: tabfe^f-And and girls died in a fire at New York City's since this fact of nature isn't likely to change, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a building that any consideration of the occupational health had no fire escapes. of women also must include the health of the Such tragedies led many states to pass so- next generation. called "protective legislation" to spare the These issues come to the fore as women "weaker sex" from long hours, hazardous enter the labor force in ever-increasing num jobs, and unsanitary conditions. As women bers. Women today account for about 40 took over jobs vacated by men during World percent of the nation's workers--compared War I, research interest in working women to 20 percent in 1920. Fifty years ago the continued. Occupational health pioneers average woman worker was single. Today like Dr. Alice Hamilton, believing that t she's married--and in the child-bearing age women were more susceptible to such haz range. ards as lead, urged passage of special laws Yet, there is an appalling lack of scien to protect women in the workplace. tific information about the occupational Then in 1920--the same year women got health of women and especially about the the vote--Congress created a Women's effects of job hazards on the fetus. Conse Bureau within the Department of Labor to quently, none of osha's standards contain promote employment opportunities for wom special provisions for women, pregnant or en and to look out for the special needs of non-pregnant, and criteria documents on women workers. recommended standards transmitted to osha When Rosie the Riveter and her cohorts by the National Institute for Occupational moved into the factories during World War Safety and Health (niosh) barely touch the II, the U.S. Army decided to sponsor a study subject of special hazards for women. of women's capability to perform certain The whole issue, of course, is further jobs and of "the relationship of employment clouded by another thorny question: In a to the health of women." The resulting re time when women are just beginning to port, Women In Industry: Their Health and enjoy their newly-won rights to equal em Efficiency by Dr. Anna Baetjer of Johns ployment at equal pay, how do we assure Hopkins University, concluded that "there them safety and health at work while pro is not reliable evidence to support the gen tecting them from further job discrimination? erally accepted view that women arc more susceptible than men to occupational dis A long way, baby? eases." She added: "There is, therefore, at present no reason why normal women should For about the past 50 years, the job safety be restricted any more than men from work and health problems of women have ranked ing at jobs which involve the use of toxic at the bottom of the research list. Cora chemical substances. Under all circunt- BFS 005364 stances the exposures should be kept below by the National Center for Health Statistics harmful levels." during 1961-63--women were not asked Bactjcr did warn, however, that because what jobs they held. Their husbands' oc of the physiological changes that take place cupations were, however, carefully noted! during pregnancy, "there is every reason to Penn State sociologist Dr. Edna Raphael believe that pregnant women might be ad points out that investigation of women's versely affected by exposure to concentra work experience is difficult because women tions of toxic substances which would usual often want to forget the unpleasant and un ly be safe for normal women." The report rewarding jobs they held before marriage. cited the Department of Labor's Standards Data collecting is further hindered because for Maternity Care and Employment of many married women have varied work his Mothers in Industry, which cautioned against tories that include moving from job to job, pregnant women being exposed to such repeated entries and exits from the labor things as benzene, carbon monoxide, carbon force, and both part-time and full-time em disulfide, chlorinated hydrocarbons, lead, ployment. mercury, radiation, and turpentine. To some degree, the lack of researches a Baetjer's book, published in 1946, still direct result of so few women in industrial j In the early 1900's, represents most of what is known about how jobs. As Dr. C. Craig Wright, president of i phosphorous poisoning caused industrial employment affects women, preg the, American Occupational Medical Asso i i ' the dread "Phossy jaw" among women employed in phosphorous match factories. nant or not. For when the war ended, men ciation (aomaI, points out, "It's only very went back to the factories, and women went re<^Uly-s4h*t and the encouragement of back to the home. Women's occupatiwaab ' worne^s\m>u5?5have resulted in more wom- safety and health was a-dearfTssfJeJ Theke^ en-Jjaaa-worejaregnant women--working in seemed litle hojSOSf (fresitt-jpijpiqjL/as the industry." women's rights m^pfoerttifained steam and the idea of "protective legislation" became abhorrent to many women. Because of the lack of information, many of the stereotypes about women workers rest on shaky foundations. Dr. David Weg- But since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. concern about women workers has revived as part of the move toward protecting all workers from job hazards. Attention has focused especially on pregnant women as news of birth defects and cancer among children of mothers who took certain drugs during pregnancy hit the front pages. man of the Harvard School of Public Health suggests that common beliefs--women are too weak to do heavy work, women cannot tolerate temperature extremes as well as men, women are more susceptible- to toxic substances--are mostly well cultivated myths. Studies show that on the average women's absolute strength is about twothirds that of men. However, Wegman America's best kept secret points out, other studies reveal more differ One sociologist has called the working woman, and especially the working mother, "one of America's best kept secrets." Despite their growing numbers in the work force, women have received scant attention in epidemiologic studies. "A review of the past five years of journals which publish occupational health studies gives the sub jective impression that the woman worker is not part of the work force that is being described," says Dr. Vilma Hunt, an ences in strength between working and nonworking women than between working wom en and working men. And although the temperature regulation mechanism apparent ly is different in the two sexes, women can regulate their body temperature equally as well as men. Therefore. Wegman urges em ployers to set criteria on work strength and endurance for specific jobs and then to hire individuals, regardless of sex, who can meet those criteria, epidemiologist from Penn State University. Wegman points out that early judgments She cites as a typical example a paper that about women's greater susceptibility to defined the study population as 31,203 male certain substances often were based more on employees of a particular plant and added opinion than on proven fact. For example, that "in order to simplify design, the 5,261 a study, showing that women were more sus female employees were excluded front the ceptible to benzene was counterbalanced by study." a study suggesting that men were more sus In one of the few studies that did include ceptible, although in neither case were information about employment during preg exposure levels reported. In fact, it is dif nancy--a health interview survey conducted ficult to dispute Anna Baetjer's conclusion 6 iip'hww*j!jp mm BFS 005365 that non-prcgnant women are no less tolerant of toxic substances than men. Even some beliefs about the effect of work on pregnant women are not supported by solid evidence, Wegman contends. While some studies suggest that working late into a first pregnancy may increase the chances of premature birth, other studies show no effect. Most authorities agree that working during pregnancy rarely creates complica tions, although some common-sense pre cautions--against fatigue and heavy lifting, for example--arc necessary. When it comes to the effects of job ex posures on the developing embryo, Vilma Hunt believes that researchers have ignored an important population-at-risk--the thou sands of children who were present in work places during their mothers' pregnancy. According to the National CentCT^cQle'aith Statistics survey, almo^C&nft-thiHdT'c^ >the women who gave birthj2Ssir^-J1963 were employed at some time during pregnancy. Sixty percent of the women having their first child and 22 percent of those who had had previous children worked while preg nant. Yet, says Hunt, "If we ask the ques tion, `Is the offspring of the working mother at higher risk than that of the non-working mother?' we still do not have an answer to apply to the United States in the year 1975.'' Three categories of hazards these women arc production workers who operate some kind of sewing machine, Nord found that they are exposed to a startling variety of hazards: chemicals used to treat fabrics; various aerosols, spray lubricants, and spray adhesives; oil mists from oils used to lubricate thread; high noise levels from machinery; trichloroethylene, a solvent used to dissolve plastic basting threads; such chemicals as chloroprenc and styrene that are used to spray the edges of cloth to prevent raveling; and lint and dust. ("You should see me in the tub," one woman told Nord. "I have so much dust on me that the bath water turns the color of the fabric I worked with that day.") Nord found thau^iost clothing manufac turers ha*^nff*ya=what chemicals they're Ssfig. "BemneQ lament is completed, as rntyrty, asdHrdifferent chemicals may be put oYt the fabric to make it permanent press and flame retardant," he says. "But apparel plants are so far down the line from the chemical plants that make these products and the textile mills that apply them that no one in the clothing industry really knows their biological effects." The heat and humidity in clothing plants can cause the chemicals applied to fabrics to oxidize and release such substances as formaldehyde. Nord notes that occupational dermatitis is common among people exposed to chemi- More than 150 women died in a fire at New York's Triangle Shirtwaist Factor/ in 1912 The disaster led many states to pass "protective leaislation" for the "weaker sex." Obviously, the specific hazards women workers face are as varied as the jobs they hold. But Clara Schiffer. a program analyst in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, suggests that job safety and health problems of women can be divided into three groups: those associated with the sex-stereo typed jobs many women hold; those that are common to both women and men workers; and those that relate only to women's re productive ability. "Women's jobs" exist in both blue-collar and white-collar employment. Clothing fac tories and textile mills, for example, have traditionally employed many women--often in jobs that can hardly be called "protected." The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (afl-cio), a majority of whose members are women, recently funded a one-year investigation by niosh of hazards in the clothing industry. Industrial hygienist Dr. Peter J. Nord concentrated his survey on the men's apparel industry, which em ploys some 400,000 workers---about 85 per cent of them women. Although most of BFS .1 0053&S One woman employed in a north Georgia carpet mill tells what it's like to work in the pervasive dust: "There's no place in the mill to move away from the dust. They got air hoses in there to move the dust, but it just made more dust for us to breathe off. Now they stopped that cause it was making -1 m our eyes go bad." And because of the often brutal pace in the mills, some of the women 1 have a drug culture all their own. "Pills \ can be got just by snapping your fingers," says the carpet mill worker. "The women have to use them lots of times cause of the rotating shift and getting used to it. Sec. they have to keep up their production. So they use the pills to speed them up when they don't feel so good." In some lines of work, "women's jobs" are not only lower-paring and less prestigious but also potentially more hazardous. In soma-dp1iitTft(nts, for example, men have "the M^i?pay^|)job of cutter while women gperMte^ me machines. In her survey of women's jobs in the District of Columbia, Clara Schiffer found that in laundries men usually are employed to run the washing machines, but women are hired to do the pressing--and consequently to experience heat stress. 1 Dust and dangerous machinery are common hazards in many cal finishes on cloth, but no one has yet studied the extent of this problem in the You can always be a nurse, stewardess ``women's jobs" in the textile industry. clothing industry. He believes that pul For the woman who has aspired to a pro monary function tests also are needed to fession, and who could afford the training, determine if respiratory disease results there have been any number of "appropriate" from inhaling dusts and fibers from chemi jobs--nurse, laboratory technician, airline cally treated fabric. stewardess, teacher, beautician. Today we're Some attempts to control hazards in finding out that these jobs aren't as safe as clothing plants are almost laughable. A they look. common sight in storage areas. Nord reports, In ministering to the sick, nurses (and is a bag of charcoal briquets hanging from other hospital workers, many of whom are the ceiling to chemically control formalde women) are exposed to drugs, germicides, hyde. In an effort to control fumes, one x-rays, and radioactive materials used for manufacturer installed a hood vent near a diagnosis and treatment; suffer back strains spot dry cleaning operation, but the exhaust from lifting; and risk infection from needle tube simply looped under the work table-- punctures and exposure to contagious dis and ended! In another plant, buttonhole eases. A recent study indicates that nurses, and bar tack machines were fitted with possibly because they arc on their feet for plastic shields to protect the seamstresses long periods, are more susceptible to blood from flying broken needles. However, the clots in their legs. Perhaps even more plastic was of such poor quality that the troublesome are findings of more spontane women got headaches from trying to see ous abortions and defective offspring among through it to guide their work. Their solu nurses exposed to anesthetic gases in operat tion: remove the guards. ing rooms. A Canadian research group also In some parts of Appalachia, many found a higher incidence of birth defects women who work must choose among the among the children of nurses who cared for textile and clothing mills that have flocked infants with infectious diseases and con to the region. Working conditions in some genital defects. of those factories are described in a recent An estimated 125,000 women in the book, Hillbilly Women, by Kathy Kahn. United States work in laboratories, where 8 BFS 00536 J they arc exposed to radiation, drugs, and Commission (recently replaced by the Nu such chemicals as mercury that have caused clear Regulatory Commission and the damage to the fetus among experimental Energy Research and Development Ad animals. Even supposedly "safe" occupa ministration), the Department of Transpor tions, such as teaching or day care work, tation, and airline employees cooperated in can expose women to rubella and other a study to determine how much radiation viruses that could damage the fetus if dis flight attendants arc exposed to, both from ease is contracted in the early stages of preg cosmic and natural sources and from radio nancy. active' materials. For eight weeks some 200 A recent niosh study of beauticians and attendents wore small dosimeter badges that cosmetology students throughout Utah measured low-level radiation. The results of showed a high incidence of lung problems, the study are expected to be available this possibly caused by inhaling large amounts spring. of hair spray. When it comes to "women's jobs," what could be more glamorous than jetting about in the "friendly skies" on the "wings of man"? Yet, stewardesses are making it known that behind their smiles lurk a variety of health problems that they attribute di rectly to their work. "The average tenure of a flight attendant used to be a year and a Del Mott points out that one study isn't enough. "We have enough reports of safety and health problems that it's time to sit down with researchers and ask them to substantiate our own informal findings," she says. Equal jobs, equal hazards Flight attendants have their own problems at 20,000 feet: equipment that comes unfastened from walls and noise levels so high in half, but now it's more than six years," says In the last decade, many of the barriers to some galleys that "we don't Del Mott, a stewardess for 10 years and equal employment for women have come tum talk, we shout." currently director of safety for the Associa bling down. The biggest breakthrough was tion of Flight Attendants. "We have some passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title people who have flown for 15 or 20 years, VII of which prohibits discrimination based and I think the jet age is finally catching on sex, as welLas^MTtace, color, religion, up with us." She is trying to get funding for aqd-nsrionS^igoW Equal Employment a comprehensive study of the heallh OpWtunitv|5ylaiissten (eeOC), which en lems that afflict women wtenflanSy-^ forces Title VII, has issued "Guidelines on kidney ailments, menstrualJSs&groers, alco Discrimination Because of Sex." These bar holism, and a mysterious nerve condition hiring based on stereotypes of the sexes; that resembles multiple sclerosis. Mott prohibit classification and advertising of jobs suspects that nervousness and perhaps other by "male" and "female" categories; and problems may be caused by the constant specify that "protective" state laws prohibit roar of jet engines, as well as by ultrasonic ing or limiting employment of women in sound and possibly even subsonic noise certain occupations, during certain hours, (or "infrasound") that causes body vibration. or for certain periods before and after Then there is the constant fatigue. Mott childbirth are superseded by Title VII. points out that flight attendants are not cov The law clearly gives women the right to ered by the same flight time-duty time regu be considered for jobs on an equal basis with lations that govern pilots, so it is not in men. But it also gives them the dubious conceivable for an attendant to work up to right to share a whole host of occupational 20 or 30 hours without adequate rest time. hazards. As women move into the construc Safety hazards in the air include galley tion trades and into a wider range of indus equipment that isn't properly secured and trial jobs, they too must contend with as attendants' jump seats that come unfastened bestos. silica, carbon monoxide, lead, and from the wall. And with the newer, bigger other common health hazards--as well as planes come new hazards. "The DC-lO's, with new chemicals about which even less f for example, fly at a three- to five-degree is known. angle with the nose up," Mott explains, "so John Zalusky, research director for the our flight attendants are experiencing severe Allied Industrial Workers International leg and back pains from constantly walking Union and a member of the ad hoc commit uphill or downhill." tee on lead hazards convened by the afl- A perpetual worry is possible radiation Cio's Industrial Union Department, describes leakage from radioactive materials carried what is happening in one midwestem plant: in the cargo compartments of commercial "The plant has two parts. One makes elec airliners. Last summer the Atomic Energy tronic equipment, and the other makes lead 9 1< i BFS 005368 i Radiation, drugs, and an endless variety of chemicals may pose health risks for female lab employees--and their unborn children storage batteries for automobiles. There al nancy. There was also a 60 percent to two ready arc a lot of women employed in the fold increase in birtli defects among children electronics part where they can be exposed born to women who worked in operating to lead in soldering fumes. But because of rooms. Yet, only about 21 percent of the the equal employment opportunity laws, the nation's hospitals are now equipped with company also is trying to move women into devices for removing waste anesthetic gases the higher paying jobs, which happen to be from the operating rooms. in the battery manufacturing section. This There are other indications of growing means that even more women will be ex recognition of pregnant women as an oc posed to lead." Lead is one of the substances cupational group. In its recommended stan that, according to some of the scientific dard for occupational exposure to vinyl literature, causes abortions and stillbirths chloride, niosh notified osiia that "in view among women exposed to it during preg of the preliminary results of animal toxicol nancy. ogy studies, it is recommended that no wom Equality is a mixed blessing for other an who is pregnant or who expects to be women workers like Juanita Mims, a mem come pregnant should be employed directly ber of the United Furniture Workers Union in vinyl chloride monomer operations." The and an organizer of the Baltimore chapter recommendation was based on findings by of the Coalition of Labor Union Women. an UaliaA-^iOTrfilt,(ff^\ Cesare Maltoni. that The plant where she works now ^mnJeys "^emiantlrafs trfpo^eqlto \ iny 1 chloride gave mostly women to mamsf3^u|e~3fywain reds pfyiho to-lWsprtng afflicted with angiosar and drapery hardware, jt^ v\gjjKk_are^ex- coma. the rare liver cancer that has killed posed to dangerous tnadiinery, oil-slick a reported 32 vinyl chloride workers world floors, and oil mists from machine lubri wide. No special provisions for pregnant cants, and they risk back strains from lifting womer were written into oshs's final stan heavy metal. "`The department where 1 dard on vinyl chloride because osha experts work used to be mostly men, but with equal did not believe the scientific evidence of a employment opportunity, our union fought hazard was strong enough for such provi for the right of women to have any job they sions to withstand the stiff court challenges wanted and could do." Mims explains. they would inevitably face. The pregnant worker The eeoc guidelines also assure specific rights for the pregnant woman. Employers cannot exclude from employment any ap plicants or employees because they are pregnant. Further, disabilities caused by or associated with pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, and childbirth must be considered temporary disabilities and treated as such under any health insurance or sick leave plan available to all employees. It is a significant victory for women that child-bearing can no longer be used as an excuse for discrimination in the workplace. But the abolition of "protection" for the pregnant worker makes it even more crucial to learn more about the third category of job hazards--those that directly affect the female reproductive system. One study that has caused quite a stir is a survey of operat ing room personnel conducted by Ntostt and the American Society of Anesthesiologists. The study showed that the risk of spon taneous abortion was 1.3 to 2 times higher among women who worked in operating rooms during the first three months of preg nancy or during the year preceding preg- Unlike earlier niosh criteria documents, the recent document on benzene also devotes specific attention to the potential hazards for pregnant workers: "Although no definite hypersusceptibility to benzene vapor has been shown in women, pregnant women, or their offspring, it may be prudent to avoid exposing pregnant women to benzene." Perhaps more troubling, though, are some findings from a new field of occupational health research known as behavioral toxi cology--the investigation of subtle changes in the functioning of the brain and nervous system produced by long-term, low-level ex posures to certain substances. Dr. Joan Spykcr of the University of Virginia Medical School points out that the placenta is a limited barrier at best and that molecules of almost all substances can cross the pla centa by simple diffusion or by some type of active transport system. Therefore, nearly every chemical entering the pregnant woman --by ingestion, inhalation, or skin absorp tion--ultimately will be found in the fetus. Teratogens--those substances that can cause abnormalities in offspring--may have a special affinity for developing brain centers and produce effects that show up as bc- 10 m i \ BF5 005369 havioral problems, sometimes not until later in life. To determine if there arc subtle and long- range cfTcets from prenatal exposure to a neurotoxic substance, Spyker injected healthy pregnant mice with methyl mercury. (All forms of mercury, which is widely used in industry, arc capable of converting natur ally into methyl mercury.) When the young were bom, she selected for study 372 that appeared normal. Close study of these "'nor mal" mice throughout their three-year life spans produced some startling results. The test mice, for example, did not explore as normal mice did and could not seem to per ceive the edge of their territory, although there was no sign of changes in their brains. Spyker found, however, that these early indications of trouble were indeed forewarn ings of later developments: neuromuscular and learning deficits, infections, posture problems and other structural abnormalities, defective immune systems, general debilita tion, and early aging. This evidence. Spyker concludes, suggests "that evaluation of subtle and long-term consequences of pre natal exposure is essential for a thorough assessment of the impact of oegupati^na hazards on human hi -- What is being done? Taking action on women's occupational hazards within the boundaries of the law represents a dilemma for labor, industry, and the government agencies responsible for setting workplace standards. Women themselves are bringing the issue to the fore. This year's annual meeting of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science featured a ses sion on the occupational health status of women. And women workers are banding together to lobby for improved conditions. The Association of Flight Attendants and the more militant Stewardesses for Wom en's Rights are fighting safety and health problems at 20.000 feet. The newly-orga nized National Union of Hospital and Health Employees, representing some 70,000 hos pital workers, is trying to control hepatitis exposures among lab technicians who handle blood plasma, to improve housekeeping in the labs, and to look into such potential new hazards as using microwave ovens to heat hospital food. Another group that plans to focus on the safety and health of female workers is the Coalition of Labor Union Women, which since its founding convention in March 1974 ! *, ri V I r pL- v -ar ' -i ii i las chartered 32 chapters with 2.500 to 3.000 members nationwide. However, many women on the job still don't realize the potential hazards they face. Pearl Spindler of the Labor Department's Women's Bureau reports that niost of the letters the Bureau receives still reflect con cern about discrimination--an employer try ing to prevent a pregnant woman from doing a job she feels she can do. for example. To try to alert women to some of the problems. Andrea Hricko of Ralph Nader's Health Research Group is writing a pamphlet for women workers that will be available later this spring. Information about ordering copies can be obtained from the Health Re search Group, 2000 P Street, NW, Wash ington. D.C. 20036. On the government front, niosh can point to its anesthesia study, its warnings about vinyl chloride and benzene, and its study of cosmetologists. The Institute is pursuing the vinyl chloride issue further by cooperat ing with the Ohio Department of Health in a study of congenital abnormalities among residents in the vicinity of vinyl chloride polymerization plants, niosh also is con ducting a massive study of employee safety and health programs in the nation's hospitals --an effort that will result in seven reports Sometimes the solution ;s as bad as the problem. These seamstresses get headaches from straining to see through plastic snields designed to protect them from flying, broken needles. 11 1 BFS 005370 and a recommended action program "to automatically ask niosh to evaluate it, al protect and promote the health of three though niosii, as a research agency, would I million hospital workers." be much more likely to be aware of such I Dr. Joseph Wagoner, director of Ntosn's information before osha would." Lassiter Division of Field Studies and Ginical In points out that osha is in the position of try vestigations, reports that his division has ing to control things that have never been surveyed the 13,000 substances on niosh's controlled before. "That's why we're in the Toxic Substances List and found that 181 courts all the time. The effects of certain ! of them have shown teratogenic or muta substances on fertile or pregnant women is genic (chromosome-altering) effects in ani just one aspect of a field that in general mals. we know very little about." osha, of course, must rely on sound scientific data in writing new standards. And All of this naturally leaves industry in a osha recognizes that including special pro quandary. As more women move into in visions in standards is bound to raise the dustrial jobs once held only by men, larger question of women's rights to equal job companies can be expected to take a closer placement. But, says Dr. Donald Lassiter, look at hazards to women. Exxon, for ex- l osha's special~^issktatit<^r(C3tcupiOTal fjftpTOl&gs to start a research program on health, "If ther^s^yj^uBSjtmmll cviqense |[hj) jgfeclQof benzene on women. "Our that there are-Mpebincrmazards for women of recommendation probably will be that wom child-bearing age--that they should not be en of child-bearing age should not be ex exposed to a substance or that their exposure posed to benzene until the facts are in," says Even ministering to the should be specially controlled--this would Dr. Norbert Roberts. Exxon's medical di sick can be hazardous to your health. Back strains, blood clots, and infectious diseases are some of the be written into standards. If information comes to our attention about teratogenic effects of substances we already have stan rector. "If we don't take such action, we may be in trouble scientifically; and if we do, we may be in trouble legally. But we'd rather problems nurses face. dards on--or of ones we don't---we would face the eeoc than a deformed baby.'' Concern about potentially hazardous oc cupational exposures has already led to some recommendations that women activists consider drastic. For example, the Environ mental Health Committee of the Lead In dustries Association, Inc., recently recom mended against employing `fertile,, gravid [pregnant], or lactating females in the lead industries until such time as adequate in formation has been developed regarding the effect of lead. ..." In a similar case, the National Council on Radiation Protection recommended that in order to minimize exposure to the fetus or embryo, occupational radiation exposure limits should be reduced for all fertile wom en. Concerned about the impact of such limitations on women's employment oppor tunities and about the invasion of privacyinvolved in determining if a woman is preg nant or fertile, the Nuclear Regulatory Com mission (nrc) has taken a more cautious approach. In proposed amendments to its regulations, which appeared in the Federal Register January 3, the nrc did not propose setting different exposure limits for men and women. Instead the regulations would re quire all nrc licensees to instruct workers exposed to radiation about the biological risks to embryos and fetuses, ways to mini mize exposures, and the functions and pur poses of protective devices. BFS 005371 New excuses for discrimination? tact at home? Or did the . ccupational ex posure affect spermatogenesis? The scien One who fears a trend against employing tists recommended further investigation. women of child-bearing age in certain jobs Meanwhile, the old question remains: is Dr. Jeanne Stcllman, health and safety what to do until the data come in? Most specialist for the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic authorities agree that it's only common sense Workers Union (ocaw). She objects to the to keep pregnant women away from suspect recommendation of the Lead Industries materials. But Harvard's David Wcgman Association because no safe level of lead cautions that it's simplistic to regard all fer exposure has been clearly established for tile women as pregnant or about to become either men or women. She notes that while so. "Unfortunately, it's often assumed that the association seeks to protect women and a woman in the child-bearing years (15 to their unborn children from the hazards of 45) is pregnant unless proven otherwise," lead, a survey of ocaw members has shown he says. that a sizable number of workers in the lead Women workers should be encouraged to industries already have toxic levels of lead report pregnancies early, because the most in their bodies. "Selecting out certain dangerous time for the developing fetus is groups in the labor force is the easy way," during the first three months. Ideally, the she maintains. "It's a cop-out to exclude pregnant employee should then be trans just women of child-bearing age from cer ferred to an area where she will not be tain jobs while permitting older women or exposed to potentially toxic chemicals. men to do those jobs." "We're gettin_tothq (tjftint where we are Aside from the argument that exclusionary --^onsaleHng Ifcoiyiacfsl Jji&cds more," says policies violate the Civil Rights Aet Stall- ssjEW^M^lgra jidfffiyr, `Taon't think special man adds, such practicesTEftj|| have" --Consideration for pregnant workers when adverse economic impact qaJwsomen work necessary negates women's rights. After all, ers. She points out that 22 percent of all industry would not put a man who has just American households are headed by wom had a heart attack into highly physical work en. More than half of these women work or expect a lightweight man to lift heavy and are the sole source of income for the objects." Unfortunately, few workplaces family. At least 30 percent of the jobs they seem to have such transfer policies yet. hold may have potential toxic exposures. According to niosh's survey, less than 15 The solution, as she sees it. is to improve percent of the nation's hospitals--which one working conditions for all workers. "T con might think would be especially concerned sider it morally reprehensible to be more with employee health--have any kind of concerned about the fetus than about adult policy for transferring pregnant workers to workers," she says. areas where they would less likely receive Noting that, human reproduction depends dangerous exposures. on two sexes, everyone from Mary Hilton, deputy director of the Women's Bureau, to the Health Research Group's Andrea Hricko would like to see research about the effects of job exposures on the reproductive systems of both women and men. Pointing to some studies indicating that workplace exposures of fathers may be linked to birth defects in their children, Hricko maintains that "our current emphasis on the hazards of chemical exposures for child-bearing age women may be one-sided." The niosh anesthesia study, for example, revealed a 25 percent increase in the incidence of birth defects among children born to wives of male operating room personnel. A Canadian study that traced the occupations of fathers of children who died from cancer before the age of five showed that a significant number of the men held jobs in which they were exposed to Sure cure Clearly, industry, labor, and government must recognize the growing importance of women in the nation's labor force. There is a crying need for more information about women as an occupational group and espe cially about the teratogenic and mutagenic effects of new substances being introduced into the workplace every year. But the sure cure, as many see it, is adequate protection for all workers. When all working men and women are assured of a safe and healthful workplace, as the Occupational Safety and Health Act was designed to accomplish, there will no longer be a need for special concern--or a special magazine article--on the occupational safety and health hazards faced by women workers. hydrocarbons. Did the fathers expose their Ms. Lehmann is associate editor of JOB SAFETY St young children to hydrocarbons through con Health. 13 u. immik BFS 1 005372