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.
Pregnancy Discrimination and Maternity Leave Laws
This article examines the current status of federal and state law regarding job preservation for the period of pregnancy-related disability. It also examines the issues of partial wage replacement and parental leave for child-rearing purposes. The thesis is that despite the federal laws prohibiting pregnancy discrimination, the rights of pregnant workers remain far from uniform or extensive. After analyzing state maternity and parental leave laws, recent United States Supreme Court pronouncements concerning such legislation, and state unemployment compensation provisions, the authors recommend a new national priority for parental leave with some wage replacement.
Chromosome studies in human lymphocytes after in vitro exposure to metal salts.
The toxic concentration of different heavy metal salts was determined in normal stimulated human lymphocyte cultures and was found to be 3 X 10(-3), 1 X 10(-2) and 5 X 10(-4) for zinc chloride, lead acetate and cadmium chloride respectively. Furthermore 3 subtoxic doses of each salt (2, 10 and 100 times less than the toxic dose) were added to 48- and 72-h cultures at 0 h and 24 h after initiation. Chromosome preparations were made and 100 well spread metaphases from each culture were analysed for the presence of numerical and structural aberrations. The most common aberration found for all tested metal salts was the occurrence of chromosome fragments. Dicentric chromosomes were only recorded in lymphocyte cultures treated with the lowest concentration of zinc chloride (3 X 10(-5) M) added at time 0, regardless whether the cultures were fixed after 48 or 72 h.