Birth Defects and Parental Occupation

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to describe some of the epidemiological activities at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the field of birth defects and parental occupation. A decade ago little evidence about hazard or safety was available and concerns about possible associations between occupational exposures and birth defects seemed relatively new. Perhaps the dearth of evidence stemmed from the recent trend of women moving into fields of employment that had been traditionally the exclusive preserves of men, fields which were perceived as being potentially inimical to a female’s reproductive function. Further, we are still more or less at the same point, although many investigations have been started in the past few years in the USA; perhaps much evidence will be available in the relatively near future. At CDC a major study will soon be completed which has as its primary purpose the assessment of the birth defects risks of a very special type of occupational setting: the Vietnam war. It is ironic that the trend to female employment in traditionally male occupations has also generated an interest in the possibility of male-mediated reproductive problems deriving from those occupational exposures.