Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ttidcc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!linus!philabs!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe From: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) Newsgroups: net.med Subject: Re: VDT radiation & related problems Message-ID: <162@ttidcc.UUCP> Date: Thu, 13-Feb-86 18:56:39 EST Article-I.D.: ttidcc.162 Posted: Thu Feb 13 18:56:39 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 16-Feb-86 05:09:16 EST References: <88700002@haddock> <9200010@uokvax.UUCP> Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) Organization: The Cat Factory Lines: 42 Summary: >> ... "In the past 5 years, at least 11 >> 'clusters' of reproductive problems in connection with VDT usage have been >> reported in the US and Canada. ... The first such cluster came to light when >> four out of seven pregnant VDT operators at the Toronto Star newspaper had >> babies with birth defects. According to a Bureau of National Affairs report, >> seven other women working in the same department who did not use VDT's gave >> birth to normal children during the same period". If experimental design and statistics were made educational requirements there would be less foolishness of this sort. You want anecdotes? OK: Where I work there are hundreds of VDT's in the building. At least one, and usually two or three, in every office. _Everybody_ has one. In the last year there must have been at least a dozen children born to women who work here. (The place looked like a maternity ward for a while (-: ). Not one birth defect in the bunch. So what does that prove? Absolutely nothing. Just as the Toronto Star situation proves absolutely nothing. People who have a workplace and job in common are very apt to have other things in common. Since it's not feasible to control for such with human subjects the _only_ way to do a valid experiment would be to randomly select a large group of VDT operators from the _national_ (or preferably _world_) population of VDT operators and see if the rate of birth defects in that group differs significantly from that of the general population. If you really wanted a useful study for the money you'd run a multivariate analysis and look at everything from make and model of VDT to the type of chair and posture of the operator. To the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge all the studies done to date that have approached the above methodology have found _no significant effect_ from working with VDTs while pregnant. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp(+)TTI 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. Geniuses are people so lazy they Santa Monica, CA 90405 do everything right the first time. (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe