Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!skyler
From: skyler@violet.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Miscarriages and VDTs
Message-ID: <11102@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 18 Jun 88 19:01:11 GMT
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New York _Times_, June 5, 1988 page 11

"Women who used video display terminals for more than 20 hours each
week in the first three months of pregnancy suffered almost twice
as many miscarriages as women doing other kinds of office work,
according to a new study.

The authors of the study, researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente Care
program in Oakland, CA said the findings did not necessarily mean
that the terminals themselves had caused the miscarriages and that
such unmeasured factors as job-related stress and poor working
conditions could also have been responsible.

The study, showing more a statistical than a causal correlation,
involved almost 1,600 pregnant women.  The researchers found that
heavy users of VDTs were more likely to have children with birth
defects, but the increase was not statistically significant..."

"...Since 1979, news organizations have reported several small
clusters of miscarriages and birth defects among VDT operators in
the US and Canada.  However, there are disputes about their meaning.
Some scientists regard the cases as clues to a more serious problem,
while others consider them statistical quirks..."

"...Some experts have suggested that low-level electromagnetc 
radiation from VDTs may be able to alter or disrupt cellular develop-
ment.  According to VDT News, experiments with mice and chicks have
shown such effects.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has said that
VDTs do not emit unsafe levels of electromagnetic radiation.  Critics
counter, however, that any additional radiation imposes additional
risks.  The institute, whose acronym is Niosh, has identified clusters
of miscarriages and other complications of pregancy among VDT users
but no cause and effect relationship has been established..."

"...Members of the Kaiser team said they did not consider their
findings definitive because the study was not designed to determine
the cause of the miscarriages.  Mrs. Goldhaber said:  'We cannot
answer the question of how this is happening--whether the increased
risk we found was related to the computer itself, or to the workplace,
or to the stress in the workplace such as from seating discomfort,
or even maybe some socio-economic differences between those who
use computers a lot and those who do not use them.'"


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