Proactive approach for the evaluation of fetal safety in chemical industries

Women, their families, and employers are concerned about potential fetal risks that may be associated with occupational exposure to chemicals. In an attempt to quantify potential fetal risks in the petroleum industry, we conducted a literature review of selected chemical compounds to which Imperial Oil Limited (IOL) female personnel may be exposed. Medline, Toxline, and Dissertation Abstracts databases were utilized to search for all research papers published in any language from 1966-1996. Chemical exposures in these papers were compared to IOL chemical exposure indices from a specific refinery and chemical plant. In total, 559 studies obtained from the literature search related to the chemicals used in a specific refinery and chemical plant. Of these, only 21 studies explicitly stated some sort of exposure level for the various chemicals. Most of the selected female reproductive toxicology studies summarized explicitly stated chemical exposure levels: either as parts per million, stratifying as to number of days of exposure, or as estimates of the percentage of the threshold limit value. On comparing the occupational literature that presented either actual or estimated values of chemical exposure dose with the IOL routine rating factors in IOL's Products and Chemicals Divisions, we found that IOL chemical exposure levels overall were lower than those reported in the literature to be associated with fetal risks. A new proactive approach is presented to inform female workers and their families of the relative safety/risk of routine occupational exposures. This approach allows for the mitigation of the misperception of teratogenic risk and unjustified fears associated with it.