SPONTANEOUS-ABORTIONS AMONG COSMETOLOGISTS

To examine the relation between adverse pregnancy out comes and work i n cosmetology during pregnancy, we conducted a mail survey in North Ca rolina among 8,356 licensed female cosmetologists 22-36 years of age. We identified pregnancies between 1983 and 1988 by a brief screening q uestionnaire, followed by a more detailed mail questionnaire. Seventy- four per cent of eligible cosmetologists responded to each inquiry. We restricted the main analysis to 96 cosmetologists with a spontaneous abortion and 547 cosmetologists with a single livebirth who worked ful l-time in cosmetology or in other jobs during the first trimester of p regnancy. With adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.4 to 2.0, we found associations between spontaneous abortion and the number of hours work ed-per day in cosmetology, the number-of chemical services performed p er week, the use of formaldehyde-based disinfectants, and work in salo ns where nail sculpturing was performed by other employees. We found n o important associations among full-time, cosmetologists who performed few chemical services-and among cosmetologists who worked less than 3 5 hours per week.