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The growing concern over the health of the working woman by Gale A. Ressler Are women of child-bearing age endangered by exposure to toxic in dustrial substances? More and more medical scientists are answering "Yes" to that question; researchers are discovering that many of the substances found in the workplace -- lead compounds, vinyl chloride, anesthetics -- are either teratogens or mutagens, substances that can cause abnormalities in offspring. In light of this recent scientific assessment, many working women of child-bearing age, exposed to teratogens or mutagens, are con fronted with a set of thorny ques tions: Must they quit their job? De mand to work in a safer plant area? Not have children? And the safety and occupational health professional is left to ponder the complex ramifications of the re cent scientific disclosures: If he removes these women workers from the job, the company may be beset by litigation under dis crimination laws. If he leaves them on the job, the company may be subjected to costly occupational disease claims. If he recommends removing the substance or converting to a closed system, he may be raising mighty questions of economic and techno logical feasibility. If he transfers women workers to other jobs at no loss of pay, he may be opening the plant's door to delegations of other workers who seek the same arrangement for dif ferent reasons. Issues dealing with the occupa tional health of women of child bearing age surfaced when scien tists discovered that molecules of most substances, with the excep tion of large molecules or those with high electrical charges, can cross the placenta by simple diffusion. Therefore, many chemicals enter ing the pregnant worker by inges tion, skin absorption, or inhalation potentially can harm the fetus. Sci entists presently do not know, how ever, what exact concentration of a teratogenic or mutagenic agent the embryo or fetus can tolerate before damage occurs. General public awareness of women's health hazards, which has been building gradually, got further impetus last spring with the publica tion of a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health, Educa tion and Welfare at Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., Pottstown, Pa. HEW researchers found that the wives of a sampling of workers who came into contact with vinyl chloride had twice as many miscar riages and still births as the wives of workers who did not handle the substance. Andrea Hricko, health coor dinator at the Center for Labor Re search and Education (University of California), in her book. Working For Your Life: A Woman's Guide to Job Health Hazards, tells of a worker employed in the plastics in dustry who had just been recalled after a lay-off: "Upon her return to a plastics factory, she was informed that she could no longer work in the vinyl chloride operation because it might be hazardous if she became pregnant. The company informed her that she could only return to work if she had a note from her doc tor, saying that she was no longer able to bear children ..." Mercury, lead, and others Mercury also can harm a develop ing fetus. The substance quickly vaporizes into the air, and thus is readily inhaled. As a metal, it is February 1977/OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS 59 DBZ0019875 Western Electric Women play increasingly diverse roles in industryPhotographs on these pages show women at work at non-hazardous jobs. 60 OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD&Fobruary 1977 U S Dept ot Labor DBZ0019876 used in thermometers, meters, den tal fillings, neon lamps, to coat mir rors, and in the production of chlorine and caustic soda. Inorganic mercury compounds are used in drugs, dyes, explosives, fingerprint From 1960 to 1975, the number of women holding hazardous jobs had almost doubled to 4.8 million. powder, and inks. Organic mercury compounds are often used in pes ticides. Studies on teratogenic effects of And as more women continue to move into what had traditionally been men's jobs, more women are exposed to potential occupational health hazards. mercury are well documented for organic (methyl) mercury. Tragic cases reported in Japan and New Mexico point to the fact that methyl mercury can pass readily through the placenta and inflict brain dam age on a developing fetus. A study conducted by the Ameri their doctors to quit their jobs al You may be wondering: If toxic can Society of Anesthesiologists together, or suffer serious long-term substances are dangerous to the funded by NIOSH indicates that consequences. fetus, then why not simply remove operating room personnel face a po Last year, news reports indicated women of child-bearing age from tentially increased risk of cancer, that 37 women of child-bearing age such jobs? miscarriages, and birth defects. The at an Idaho lead smelter were told Some, companies are doing just incidence of spontaneous abortion that they could no longer work in that, but not without reservations was 1.3 to 2 times higher among lead operations because of the po about their vulnerability to legal women studied who worked in tential effects of lead on their future challenges regarding women's operating rooms the year preceding offspring. The women were trans rights to equal job placement under pregnancy, and during the first ferred to safer jobs, some at less Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights' trimester of pregnancy, than among pay. Act. This Act prohibits discrimina m the child-bearing population gener ally. NIOSH reports that over a mil Significant trend tion on the basis of race, sex, reli gion, or national origin. Title VII has become a catch-all for hiring, lion American workers are exposed to lead each year, though no specific estimate is available. In a govern How many w'omen workers may be affected by toxic substances in the workplace?. layoff, training, promotion, senior ity, and discharge practices. The Civil Rights Act is administered by ment paper on lead, Dr, Peter In Labor Department statistics re the Equal Employment Oppor fante, and Joseph Wagoner, veal that from 1960 to 1975, the tunities Commission (EEOC) and NIOSH's chief of Industry-Wide number of women holding poten covers workers in companies with Studies, report: "Observations tially hazardous jobs had almost 15 or more employees, or unions among human populations indicate doubled to 4.8 million. According to with 15 or more members. that lead is associated with sterility, BLS projections, by 1990, more spontaneous abortions, still births, birth defects, increased infant mor than one out of two women, 16 years and older, will be in the work Health pro's quandary tality, increased prematurity, and force. Thus as more women con Several major corporations have an increase in chromosomal tinue to move into what had tradi recently established policies which anomalies." Infante cited a 1975 tionally been men's jobs, more exclude women from working in NIOSH study in which 150 males women are exposed to potential oc certain plant areas: Dr. Robert exposed to lead in a storage battery cupational health hazards. Wiencek, medical director. General facility were examined, revealing a When asked to comment on re Motors Corp., told Occupational significant decrease in fertility, a cent disclosures of the harmful ef Hazards that women who are capa toxic effect on the gonads, changes fects of toxic substances on the ble of bearing children are not as in sperm strength and production, pregnant worker, Dr. Finklea, signed to work in lead operations. ^ and the likelihood of transmitting NIOSH-director, replied: "It looks At Exxon Corp., fertile women birth defects. to me that this is a significant health are not assigned to areas where they According to the California State question and a very powerful prob can be exposed to benzene. Dr. Board of Health, some 100 workers lem that is hard to discount. But at Norbert Roberts, Exxon's medical at a west coast auto battery plant this point we really don't have the director, said that in following this saw a doctor last year, and 17 were answers from the regulatory view policy, "We may be in trouble le- ,, hospitalized. In addition, over 80 point, the ethical viewpoint, or the gaily, but we would rather face an employees were ordered to wear legal viewpoint, ..." Dr. Finklea EEOC inspector than a deformed respirators a few hours a day, and told Occupational Hazards, how baby." about 30 were told to stay away ever, that all of NIOSH's recom Dr. H.C. Scharnweber, corpo from the plant for a while -- some mended standards and OSHA's rate medical director, Dow Chemi for as long as 5 months. Other proposed and permanent standards, cal Corp., told us that "Dow would workers, including women of in vie%v of recent findings, must and not place women of child-bearing childbearing age, were advised by are being reassessed. age in areas where they might be February 1977/OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS 61 DBZ0019877 exposed to known human terato gens and transplacental carcinogens such as thalidomide, radiation, methoxy fluoranc and halothane, and organic dyes. This is a way of establishing a placement policy," Jhe said, ~ Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) attorney Robert Fonner told us that the NRC thoroughly edu cates its workers about potential health risks. In dealing with the issue of legally removing women of child-bearing age from areas where they may be exposed to unsafe radi ation levels, the NRC considered mandatory pregnancy testing and setting a special radiation standard to cover fertile women. However, NRC's legal advisors deemed both proposals infeasible -- the first, they counselled, would be an inva sion of privacy, and the second, un constitutional sex discrimination. After considering other alternatives such as setting a stricter standard, the NRC's Office of Standards De velopment published' Regulatory Guide 8.13, "Instruction Concern ing Prenatal Radiation Exposure." which offers the^nrecnant worker the following alternatives: "(1) If you are now pregnant or expect to be soon, you could decide not to accept or continue assign ments in these areas. "(b) You could reduce your ex posure, where possible, by decreas ing the amount of time you spend in the radiation area, increasing your distance from the radiation source, and using shielding. "(c) If you do become pregnant, you could ask your employer to reassign you to areas involving less exposure to radiation. If this is not possible, you might consider leav ing your job. If you .decide to take such steps, do so without delay. The unborn child is most.sensitive to radiation during the first three months of your pregnancy. "(d) You could delay having chil dren until you are no longer working in an area where the radiation dose to your unborn baby could exceed 0.5 rcm. "You may also, of course, choose to: (e) Continue working in the higher radiation areas, but with full awareness that you are doing so at some small increased risk for your unborn child ..." Leaders of the women's libera tion movement have been strangely silent regarding exposure of women of child-bearing age to industrial substances. If, as appears likely, they break their silence soon, public sensitivity to this issue will heighten. What recourse is being sought under Title VII is difficult to measure. EEOC statistics for 1974-75 indicate approximately 29,000 women filed lawsuits based on discrimination charges, but that covers the entire spectrum of com plaints. Picking up the gamut? In the future, occupational dis ease claims would seem to be a dis tinct possibility. As NIOSH's Dr. Finklea puts it: "The only redress of the damaged child would be civil action." Against this background, safety and health professionals looking to the classic solution encounter these complexities: Reducing exposure to toxic substances through engineering controls may cut down on claims, though, in some cases, they may not be technologically or econoTnicairy feasible. Providing protective clothing and equipment to reduce exposure, but aware, in so doing, that OSHA regards such protection only as an "interim" solution. Converting to a less toxic sub stance, but aware that the search for Nelson Stud Welding Co. one will prove costly, frustrating, and sometimes fruitless. Transferring women workers of child-bearing age to safe jobs, if in deed the company has the capabil- ity, and the labor relations'climate is right. _ In a recent policy dictum, the United Auto Workers (UAW), of- ten a bellwether union, opposed mandatory transfer as a means of abating over-exposure to lead. UAW policy states: "Coerced transfers for this rea- son will be considered sex discrimi- nation in violation of collective bar- gaining agreements' nondiscrimina- tion clauses and federal law." However, the policy further states that agreements need to be made with employers at local and national levels, insuring that "workers who choose to transfer from lead- exposed jobs should receive full protection of wages, classifications, fringe benefits, seniority, promo- tions, and other contractual rights. Privacy as to the reasons for trans- fer must be absolutely protected. These transfers should be consid- ered identical to other medical re- strictions." Whichever approach you choose, you're likely to find that the issue of women of child-bearing age in the workplace resists easy solutions. Nonetheless, solutions must be de vised lest excessive exposure to toxic substances takes its toll on the next generation. 4- i .i 3 j * "j f | | S -f j J f j I * j j i | | f - j : J ^ j 82 OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS/February 1977 DBZ0019878