Reproductive Health in High-tech Industrial Worker
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Lin, Ching-Chun
Abstract
The semiconductor industry is one of the most important worldwide high-technology industries and growing rapidly, also the Liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturing. Those high-tech industries use many organic chemical solvents in the fabrication process. Many chemical which were regularly used in the manufacturing have been reported or suspected to have reproductive toxicity. Although their reproductive toxicity has been evaluated in animal studies, the knowledge of the reproductive toxicity in humans is scant.ncreased risks of prolonged time to pregnancy and spontaneous abortion have been reported in the female workers of semiconductor industry. To our knowledge the potential risk of congenital malformations in the offspring of the workers in this industry has not been published yet. Thus, we conducted a linkage of registries from the Department of Health, Taiwan to explore this risk in the liveborn children of the workers in the semiconductor industry.he objective of the first part this study was to investigate whether female workers were at higher risk of any adverse birth outcome or death from congenital malformation. We obtained the employment information of workers in eight semiconductor companies from the Bureau of Labor Insurance, Taiwan. A total of 19,816 male and 27,610 female workers had been employed in these companies during 1980-2000. We identified liveborn children in the National Birth Registry and deaths from congenital malformations in the National Death Registry. We used multiple logistic analysis models to calculate odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals.A total of 14,812 and 24,223 children were born to male and female workers, respectively. After controlling for maternal age and children’s sex and year of birth, increased risks of deaths with congenital malformations [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 3.26; and 95% ;confidence interval (CI), 1.12 to 9.44] and heart anomalies (OR, 4.15; 95% CI, 1.08 to 15.95) were found in the male workers who employed in the industry during the two month before conception. However, there were no significant findings in the female workers who employed during the three months before and after conception.e found evidence for a possible link between potential paternal preconceptional exposure and an increased risk of congenital malformations in the heart and circulatory system. The possible etiological hypothesis needs to be corroborated in the future.he objective of second part of the study was to determine the effect of organic solvents on menstrual cycle characteristics of female workers in LCD manufacturing by using questionnaire and daily urine metabolites of sex steroid hormones to obtain menstrual function data and assess the potential reproductive effect of occupational exposure in LCD manufacturing.he results of canister sampling analyzed showed that there were many chemical compounds with potentially reproductive effects in the fabrication area. The handheld VOC monitor showed that there were higher concentrations of total volatile organic compounds in panel and module areas than others. Female workers in panel (adjusted odds ratio = 7.68, 95% confidence interval = 1.51 to 39.15) and module areas (adjusted odds ratio = 8.38, 95% confidence interval = 1.72 to 40.95) and had higher risks of short menstrual cycles which have the length shorter than 24 days than those in array and office.areas.e found an increased risk of short menstrual cycles among the women working in panel and module processes. The conjecture of our study was that exposure to multiple organic solvents have substantial reproductive effects on premenopausal women.e found that the female workers in the module group had a significant increase of FSH and E1C in the early follicular phase E1C and PdG in periovulatory phase and FSH and E1C and PdG in luteal phase compared with those in panel and group.he multiple chemical exposures may diminish ovarian oocyte reserve or induced ovarian failure. shortening follicular phase leads to shortening menstrual cycle. Exposure to multiple organic solvents has substantial reproductive effects on premenopausal women.
Subjects
congenital anomalies
occupational exposure
semiconductor exposure
paternal exposure
semiconductor industry
liquid crystal display manufacturing
menstrual cycle
organic solvents
premenopausal women
estrogens
follicle stimulating hormone
infertility, luteinizing hormone
progesterone
SDGs
Type
thesis
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