From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: LABOR: STUDY: 1 in 3 Semiconductor Workers Suffer Miscarriages
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 01:30:28 GMT

    "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."

[Via misc.activism.progressive from LaborNet's labor.newsline]
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Topic 280       Semiconductor Worker Miscarriages 
labornet        Labor News & Notes      12:31 pm  Oct 12, 1992 
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From: <labornet> 
Subject: Semiconductor Worker Miscarriages 

From: Rand Wilson <rwilson@igc.org>
                  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)  


-- Hit <RETURN> or <ENTER> for more (56% read) -- 
Conf?  


[Continued] Topic 280   Semiconductor Worker Miscarriages 

                 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.  
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