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.
Reproductive Health Hazards in the Workplace: Guidelines for Policy Development and Implementation.
To provide occupational health professionals and employers with guidelines for reproductive health policy making, the authors-both of whom are obstetrician-gynecologists and occupational medicine physicians-review the history of and legal basis for U.S. policy on work and reproduction, delineate the goals and important elements of a reproductive health policy (RHP), and emphasize the need to incorporate an RHP into a comprehensive occupational injury and illness prevention program. After suggesting practical ways to achieve the goals of an RHP (maximal health protection, compliance with legal mandates, and reduction of liability), the authors propose a team-based model for RHP implementation with shared responsibility of management and workers in designing, enforcing, and evaluating the policy.
Pre- and postnatal enzyme capacity for drug metabolite production.
Most lipid-soluble foreign compounds including drugs, insecticides and many environmental pollutants are metabolized in animals by cytochrome P-450 enzymes in the endoplasmic reticulum of liver. These enzymes are virtually absent in fetuses of laboratory animals, but their activities increase to adult levels within 3-8 weeks after birth. In human fetuses, the enzymes appear during the first half of pregnancy, and their activities during gestation reach about one third of those found in adults. The species differences in fetal activities apparently parallel the differences in the development of liver endoplasmic reticulum. In laboratory animals, the rough-surfaced reticulum does not develop until 4 days before birth adn the smooth-surfaced retuculum develops only after birth. In man, however, the rough-surfaced form appears at about 7 to 9 weeks of gestation, whereas the smooth-surfaced form appears at about the 3rd month of pregnancy. Despite the early development of these enzymes in humans, they probably play only a minor role in limiting the accumulation of most foreign compounds in human fetuses. Nevertheless, they may play an important role in drug-induced toxicities, particularly those that are mediated through the formation of chemically reactive metabolites.