From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: IBM Study: Miscarriages Among Semiconductor Workers
Date: 15 Oct 92 21:12:31 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: PACH
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: PACH

/** headlines: 379.0 **/
** Topic: Semiconductor Worker Miscarriages **
** Written  4:42 pm  Oct 14, 1992 by ggundrey in cdp:headlines **
From: George Gundrey <ggundrey>
Subject: Semiconductor Worker Miscarriages

/* Written 12:31 pm  Oct 12, 1992 by labornet in cdp:labor.newsline */
/* ---------- "Semiconductor Worker Miscarriages" ---------- */
From: <labornet>
Subject: Semiconductor Worker Miscarriages

From: Rand Wilson <rwilson>
                  Campaign for Responsible Technology

                            PRESS ADVISORY 

October 12, 1992                                       For more info: 
                              Ted Smith, Chair (San Jose) 408-287-6707
                           Rand Wilson, Director (Boston) 617-391-3866

                   NEW IBM STUDY SHOWS ONE-IN-THREE 
              SEMICONDUCTOR WORKERS SUFFER MISCARRIAGES:

Recent research by an IBM sponsored study of health and safety in
company "clean rooms" showed highly elevated rates of miscarriages for
women chip workers.

The IBM study--originally commissioned in 1987--was initiated after a
similar study at Digital Equipment (DEC) found increased rates of
miscarriages for chip production workers at their Massachusetts
facility.

The results of these studies confirm what many workers and health and
safety experts have said for a long time.  "For over 10 years, we have
been trying to warn people to replace glycol ethers because of their
reproductive hazards," said Amanda Hawes director of the Santa Clara
Center for Occupational Safety and Health (SC-COSH).  "But the
electronics industry has been stalling until there is a body count. 
It is particularly upsetting, because most of the people at risk are
women, and most of the decision makers are men."

"The IBM study results were predicted--and predictable.  The
continuing exposure of workers to these hazards and the resulting
adverse health effects, are yet another legacy of the Reagan Bush
years,"  added Nancy Lessin, director of the Massachusetts Coalition
for Occupational Safety and Health.

According to a chronology of Glycol Ethers prepared by the San Jose-
based Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC), workers and communities
have been victimized a by a lack of meaningful regulation of hazardous
chemicals, and an absence of strategies for reducing the use of toxics
in the chip making process.  The Glycol Ethers chronology is attached.

"The Semiconductor industry has steadfastly attempted to downplay
health hazards in the chip industry and to prolong finding meaningful
solutions to these problems," said Rand Wilson, director of the
Campaign for Responsible Technology (CRT) a national network of
community, environmental and labor groups.  "At the same time as the
Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) attacked the credibility of
the DEC study, an industry "white paper" attempted to assure policy
makers and the press that internal measures were sufficient to deal
with the problem.  Clearly they are not."

CRT recently succeeded in winning significant resources for
occupational and environmental research at SEMATECH, the
government/industry chip making research consortium. 

"For years we have been trying to get the SIA to meet with us and take
these issues seriously," said Ted Smith, chair of CRT and Director of
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.  "Unfortunately, there are too many
people in positions of power in the electronics industry who care more
about the next generation of chips than about the next generation of
children."  Smith added that his group will seek to meet with SIA
again to discuss health and safety issues.  

Additional national contact people who are directly involved in
combatting workplace and environmental hazards in other high tech
industry centers:  

BOSTON: Nancy Lessin, Mass COSH (617) 524-6686

SAN JOSE: Amanda Hawes SC-COSH (408) 998-4051
Flora Chu, Asian Workers Health Project (408) 287-7744

AUSTIN: Susana Almanza, Sylvia Ledesma, People Organized in Defense of
Earth and its Resources (PODER) (512) 474-0811

PHOENIX: Tupac Enrique, Maricopa County Organizing Project (MCOP) 
(602) 254-5230

ALBUQUERQUE: Richard Moore, Southwest Network for Environmental and
Economic Justice (505) 242-0416  
Aida Franco, Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) (505) 247-8832

BINGHAMTON: Lee Conrad, IBM Workers United (607) 797-6911 (H)

Trade Union Industrial Hygienist:
David LeGrande, Communications Workers of America (CWA) (202) 434-1160

For scientific info on Glycol Ethers and their toxicity: 
Dr. Daniel Teitelbaum, Occupational Physician
Denver, CO (303) 355-2625, (303) 750-0697 (H) 


                 CRT Toxic Timeline on Glycol Ethers

January 1981:   Santa Clara Center for Occupational Safety and
Health publishes technical report documenting that glycol ethers cause
reproductive disorders in animals, citing a NIOSH study.

May 1982:               California Department of Health Services (Hazard
Evaluation System and Information Service) issues health warning to
California workers on glycol ether solvents, finding that "glycol
ethers have damaged the reproductive systems of test animals, raising
the possibility that they may cause similar effects in humans."

May 1982:               Semiconductor Industry Association issues alert to
semiconductor executives regarding glycol ether health effects,
particularly reproductive effects.

September 1983: Chemical Manufacturers Association issues Research
Status Report on glycol ethers, documenting extensive reproductive
toxicity in animal studies.

January 1985:   California Department of Health Services releases
its epidemiological study on residents exposed to semiconductor
solvents that had leaked into drinking water from a leaking
underground tank at Fairchild Semiconductor in San Jose.  The study
reports birth defects and miscarriages at 2 1/2 to 3 times the
expected rates.

December 1986:  An epidemiological study conducted by Digital
Equipment Corporation on semiconductor workers in Hudson,
Massachusetts finds miscarriage rates two-times the expected rate.

Febuary 1987:   National coalition releases report on glycol ethers
and reproductive hazards in the workplace at the AFL-CIO Executive
Board meeting in Florida, urging the semiconductor industry to "ban
toxic chemicals, not workers" from the workplace.  The coalition
requests meetings with SIA and the major semiconductor companies.

May 1987:               Semiconductor Industry Association announces
establishment of Scientific Advisory Panel to oversee study of
reproductive hazards in the semiconductor industry.

October 1987:   Scientific paper presented to SEMICON Southwest
Technical Program in Dallas which outlines effective alternatives to
glycol ether use in the semiconductor industry (Alternative Casting
Solvents for Positive Photoresist, by Angela Boggs).

November 1987:  California Senate Committee on Toxics holds hearing
in Santa Clara County to document reproductive hazards in the
semiconductor industry.

November 1988:  Integrated Circuit (predecessor of CRT) writes
letter to SIA Scientific Advisory Board seeking participation in
oversight of reproductive hazards survey.  The request is largely
ignored.

January 1989:   SIA signs a $3.5 million research grant with
researchers at U.C. Davis to conduct industry-wide health study. 
Fifteen companies agree to participate in a study of 18,000 workers. 
IBM does not participate, preferring to conduct its own study through
Johns Hopkins University.

May 1989:               Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition publishes research
paper in cooperation with the Alternative Technologies Section of the
California Department of Health Services entitled "Waste Reduction of
Glycol Ethers by Source Reduction" which documents reproductive
hazards of glycol ethers and identifies and encourages replacement
alternative solvents for semiconductor manufacturing.

October 1992:   IBM study results leak out, indicating one-in-three 
IBM semiconductor workers exposed to glycol ethers suffer
miscarriages. 


** End of text from cdp:headlines **
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