Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site islenet.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!noscvax!uhpgvax!islenet!todd
From: todd@islenet.UUCP (Todd Ogasawara)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: xrays from CRTs
Message-ID: <467@islenet.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Jun-84 02:26:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: islenet.467
Posted: Fri Jun  1 02:26:58 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Jun-84 06:54:06 EDT
Organization: Islenet Inc., Honolulu
Lines: 69

A recent note of mine summarizing information from the 21 May 1984
issue of InfoWorld, which showed apparently high miscarriage rates
among  VDT  operators  at  two  sites,  has  raised some justified
questions  from   you   netlanders.    Specifically,   while   the
miscarriage/fetal death rate appears high (51% of pregnancies), we
did  not  have  any  data  to  compare this against.  Further, the
sample size (n=63) was small.  In order to try to get a  frame  of
reference,  I  obtained  permission  this  morning  to look at and
present the data you will see here.  The data presented here  were
obtained from and presented here with the permission of:

	The Hawaii Family Study of Cognition (HFSC)
	Prin. Inves.: Dr. Ronald Johnson
		      Univ. of Hawaii
		      Behavioral Biology Laboratory (BBL)
		      supported by:
			NSF Grant GB-34720
			NICHHD Grant HD-06669

	with  thanks  to  Craig  Nagoshi,  U.  of Hawaii, BBL, for
retrieving the data.

The data was obtained between the years 1973 and 1976 as part of a
larger  study  made  on the island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii.
The mean age of the respondents was 42.88 years  with  a  standard
deviation  of  5.6041.   They were asked to report any fetal death
(not just miscarriages) in their lifetime.  In order to  make  the
VDT  data more comparable, the VDT data presented here include all
fetal deaths also (not deformities of live births though).

Caveats: There are numerous problems in trying to compare the HFSC
data  and  the VDT data.  Among the more obvious problems: (1) the
data were obtained in different time frames, (2) comparison groups
are from different geographical locations, (3) the groups are  not
matched  for  pertinent  characteristics  (occupation,  lifestyle,
etc.).  Please keep in mind that I present the data ONLY  to  HELP
us  get  a  frame  of reference.  No real conclusions can be drawn
without obtaining more  recent  data  using  a  large  sample  and
matched groups.

Due  to  the  large  number  of  statistical,  methodological, and
conceptual violations that would be made by  using  a  high  level
statistical analysis, only percentages are presented.  We did do a
quick  check  for  differences  due to Socio-Economic Status (SES)
though.  We did not see any trends due to SES.  However, it should
be noted that the respondents were mostly middle and  upper-middle
class.    Ethnic  differences,  however,  appear  to  be  present.
Therefore, a breakdown by ethnicity is  presented.   It  would  be
interesting  to see the results of a large scale study.  Again, if
anyone is in the position to present such data, I, for one,  would
be interested to see it.

Ethnicity		%fetal death	N	comments
---------		------------   ---	--------
???			50		48	United Airlines
						S.F. Resv. Office
???			53		15	Southern Bell
						Atlanta/data proc

Across all ethnicities	28.19	      1745	HFSC data
  Misc. ethnicities	34.02	        97	subset of above
  caucasian		31.81	       962
  Japanese		23.56	       433
  Hawaiian-part Hawn	21.54	       130
  Chinese		18.70	       123


Todd Ogasawara -- University of Hawaii -- Dept. of Psychology
        { dual,vortex,ihnp4,uhpgvax }!islenet!todd