NIOSH Testimony before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight Committee on Science and Technology by J. Donald Millar, July 27, 1982

摘要

The testimony presented before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Science and Technology concerns the role of NIOSH in the effort to understand and control the potential for workplace exposures to chemicals and physical agents which can affect the ability of men and women to have normal, healthy children. In the United States, the attention was directed toward reproductive hazards in the mid 1970s. A Conference on Women and the Workplace highlighted results of early studies and identified other areas for further research. The early emphasis was on women and offspring, but lately additional studies have centered on the reproductive effects on the male. The range of reproductive hazards is divided into three broad categories: detrimental effects on the ability to conceive; detrimental effects on the ability to carry a pregnancy to a full term normal delivery; and the production of infants with low birthweight and birth defects. Epidemiological studies are currently being conducted. Laboratory studies have also begun to develop an objective, verifiable method of evaluating sperm motility. Two surveillance studies are noted. The effect on women's reproductive abilities when their husbands are involved in work with lead (7439921) is discussed.