Proactive approach for the evaluation of fetal safety in chemical industries

Women, their families, and employers are concerned about potential fetal ri sks that may be associated with occupational exposure to chemicals. In an a ttempt to quantify potential fetal risks in the petroleum industry, we cond ucted a literature review of selected chemical compounds to which Imperial Oil Limited (IOL) female personnel may be exposed. Medline, Toxline, and Di ssertation Abstracts databases were utilized to search for all research pap ers published in any language from 1966-1996. Chemical exposures in these p apers were compared to IOL chemical exposure indices from a specific refine ry and chemical plant. In total, 559 studies obtained from the literature s earch related to the chemicals used in a specific refinery and chemical pla nt. Of these, only 21 studies explicitly stated some sort of exposure level for the various chemicals. Most of the selected female reproductive toxico logy studies summarized explicitly stated chemical exposure levels: either as parts per million, stratifying as to number of days of exposure, or as e stimates of the percentage of the threshold limit value. On comparing the o ccupational literature that presented either actual or estimated values of chemical exposure dose with the IOL routine rating factors in IOL's Product s and Chemicals Divisions, we found that IOL chemical exposure levels overa ll were lower than those reported in the literature to be associated with f etal risks. A new proactive approach is presented to inform female workers and their families of the relative safety/risk of routine occupational expo sures. This approach allows for the mitigation of the misperception of tera togenic risk and unjustified fears associated with it. Teratology 60:130-13 6, 1999. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.