Occupational exposures of veterinary staff during pregnancy.

摘要

In this study the reproductive effects associated with occupational exposure to inhaled anaesthetics and x-radiation were investigated. Ninety women contacted the Motherisk Program requesting counselling on their occupational exposures in veterinary medicine, of these 54 pregnant women were enrolled in the study, followed-up and matched to controls. The rates of major malformations (p = 0.71), spontaneous abortion (p = 0.98), pre-term delivery (p = 1.000) and low birth weight infants (p = 0.09) were similar between the study and control groups. Since the study patients were unable to provide the radiation levels to which they had been exposed, records of annual radiation doses of veterinary staff were obtained from the National Dose Registry and analyzed. All the veterinary practices had annual mean radiation doses below the whole-body annual permissible dose equivalent of 20 mSv.;These findings suggest that veterinary staff exposed to inhaled anaesthetics and/or x-radiation are not at an increased risk for major malformation above the 3% baseline risk.