Employer fetal protection policies at work: Balancing reproductive hazards with Title VII rights
Perhaps one of the most compelling divisive workplace issues of the decade surrounds the use of increasingly complex chemicals in work environments which raises legal, economic, medical and moral concerns, especially as employers adopt employment policies meant to avoid the specter of massive tort liability for workplace exposure injuries to workers or third parties. In the case, /International Union v. Johnson Controls, the Supreme Court struck down an employer's policy prohibiting fertile women from work involving exposure to the well-known teratogen, lead, where the employer could not produce a defense to this facially discriminatory policy. The authors analyze the Court's opinion and concurrences, and note the important tensions still needed resolution after the case: namely the public policy mandate to protect all populations from workplace toxins; to eradicate toxins from the workplace; and to promote worker and safety health of both men and women.
Revising the Minimum Wage for the 1990s
This article examines the federal-wage floor concept of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) in light of the current legislative debate to increase the minimum wage. The arguments of proponents and opponents of the initial minimum wage law and its periodic increases have remained fairly constant over the past fifty years. The opponents' concerns about potential loss of jobs, negative impact upon businesses, and the economy and the questionable efficiency of the wage floor in reaching the neediest workers to eliminate poverty remain the most prevalent reasons cited. The harmful impact of a minimum wage increase on the competitiveness of U.S. business in the international sphere has emerged as the foremost issue of opponents in this decade.
Inhibition of mouse testicular DNA synthesis by mutagens and carcinogens as a potential sample mammalian assay for mutagenesis.
Since mutagenic substances induce structural changes in DNA, studies were undertaken to determine whether substances would modify DNA replicative activity. DNA synthesis was quantitated 3.5 h after drug administration as uptake into DNA of a 30-min pulse of 10 muCi of [3H] thymidine. Combinations of methylurea (20000 mg/kg) and sodium nitrite (150 mg/kg) administered p.o. resulted in gastric synthesis of nitrosomethylurea and inhibited testicular DNA synthesis by 83%. Combinations of methylurea and sodium nitrite of 1000 and 100 mg/kg respectively inhibited DNA synthesis by 75%. With dimethylamine and sodium nitrite, a combination which results in gastric synthesis of dimethylnitrosamine, inhibitions of 65 and 57% were observed at 2000 mg/kg together with 150 mg/kg and 1000 mg/kg in combination with 100 mg/kg, respectively. In separate experiments, dimethylnitrosamine (50 mg/kg, p.o.) and diethylnitrosamine (100 mg/kg, i.p.) inhibited thymidine uptake by 30 and 89%, respectively. The mutagenic polynucelar hydrocarbon 3-methylcholanthrene (15 mg/kg) inhibited DNA synthesis by 95% and safrole (640 mg/kg), a mutagenic methylenedioxybenzene derivative, inhibited by 60%. Cadmium chloride (10 mg/kg), acetylaminofluorene (160 mg/kg) and dibutylnitrosamine (500 mg/kg) also induced statistically significant effects. Noncarcinogenic analogues of these substances (anthracene, 125 mg/kg; diphenyl-nitrosamine, 500 mg/kg; piperonyl butoxide, 640 mg/kg, and methylurea, 2000 mg/kg in combination with sodium nitrate) were inactive. Highly toxic substances (potassium cyanide, 2.5 mg/kg; 2,4-dinitrophenol, 20 mg/kg; and lead acetate, 150 mg/kg) were also inactive. This index of mutagenicity appears to have considerable sensitivity and therefore may have potential in drug evaluation.