OCCUPATIONAL PATERNAL EXPOSURE TO BENZENE AND RISK OF SPONTANEOUS-ABORTION

Objective-The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk of sponta neous abortion among the wives of male workers occupationally exposed to benzene. Methods-The wives of 823 men working in two chemical plant s at the time of the study were asked to complete a questionnaire desc ribing their pregnancies. The analysis of the 1739 pregnancies that en ded in a spontaneous abortion or a birth is presented. The firms' payr oll records provided all workers' employment history, including dates. Benzene exposure, graded at two levels (<5, greater than or equal to 5 ppm), was determined for every job, so that benzene exposure for eac h worker's entire professional life (at these companies) could be asse ssed. This information was linked to the dates of the pregnancies repo rted in the questionnaires to enable the exposure status of each pregn ancy to be defined (1270 non-exposed and 274 exposed). The frequency o f spontaneous abortion, defined as the number of spontaneous abortions divided by the total of spontaneous abortions and births was evaluate d. Results-When adjusted for tobacco consumption, mother's age and pre gnancy order, the odds ratio of the association between paternal expos ure to approximately 5 ppm of benzene and the risk of spontaneous abor tion was close to and statistically not different from unity (OR = 1.1 ; 95% CI (0.7-1.8). Conclusion-In this study paternal exposure to benz ene did not increase the risk of spontaneous abortion.