Parental occupational exposure and spontaneous abortions in Finland

Spontaneous abortions were analyzed by the occupational exposure of women and their husbands, with data from the Finnish hospital discharge register and the national census. The occupations were grouped according to presumed exposure into seven categories: exposure to solvents; automobile exhaust fumes; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; other chemicals; metals; textile dust; and animal microorganisms. The relative risks of spontaneous abortion were estimated with logistic regression analysis to adjust for potentially confounding factors. The broad exposure categories appeared, at most, to be weak risk factors of spontaneous abortion, because the relative risks of abortion were not significantly increased in any of the parental exposure groups. The analysis of detailed occupational categories showed some female and male occupations with an increased risk. The observations of increased risk related to laboratory work support earlier findings. The high number of textile occupations with increased risk is also worth noting, and further investigations are necessary to confirm whether this is due to occupational hazards or other factors.