ID Number		1324
Study Type		Epidemiology
Model		Occupational exposure to video display terminals and analysis of adverse pregnancy outcomes
Details		Spontaneous abortions were analyzed from several Montreal hospitals (1982  1984) (104,620 pregnancies, 17,632 pregnancies in occupations with substantial use of visual display units). The risk of spontaneous abortion from all working women taken together was significant (OR = 1.19; 90% CI 1.09-1.30). The authors reported no correlation between VDU exposure and spontaneous abortion in current pregnancies (OR = 1.06; 90% CI 0.8-1.4) or previous pregnancies (OR = 1.01; 90% CI 0.7-1.3). There was also no correlation with congenital defects, stillbirth, preterm birth, or low birth weight. The slight excess of abortions in VDU users in births that occurred in current pregnancies was considered by the authors to be a result of biased recall. The authors conclude that their study does not support a correlation between VDU exposure and risk of congenital defects or spontaneous abortion. The only significant correlation with VDU use was found with renal urinary defects (OR = 1.84; 90% CI 1.07-3.15 for current pregnancies and OR = 1.66; 90% CI 0.82-3.25 for previous pregnancies), but because the authors could not explain or provide any reason to suspect a causal link with this type of defect, they considered it a possible outlier and simply stated that interpretation remains open to question.
Findings		No Effects
Status		Completed With Publication
Principal Investigator		Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK
Funding Agency		Private/Instit.
Country		UNITED KINGDOM
References		McDonald, AD et al. Br. J. Ind. Med., (1988) 45:509-515 McDonald, AD et al. J. Occup. Med., (1986) 28:1226-1231
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