skyler@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Patricia Roberts) (09/12/88)
There was a massive system failure on Saturday morning and unread mail was lost. So if you mailed an article to me, you should definitely try again. On another matter, some unions are requesting that it be written into the contracts that pregnant women may request a transfer or sick leave or various other things rather than work with VDTs. I found this troubling. It has not been shown that there is a cause-effect relationship between VDTs and miscarriage; there have been clusters of miscarriages which may be due to things other than VDTs. I wonder if such contracts make women much less attractive employment prospects--at least women in the child-bearing ages. What do the rest of you think? -Trish
roy@phri (Roy Smith) (09/13/88)
skyler@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Patricia Roberts) writes: > some unions are requesting that it be written into the contracts that > pregnant women may request a transfer or sick leave or various other > things rather than work with VDTs. [...] I wonder if such contracts make > women much less attractive employment prospects I'm sure it does. Recently around here, Sufolk County (far half of Long Island, distant NYC suburbs) passed a law requiring all sorts of special protections for VDT operators. The law specified work hours, kind of seating and lighting, etc. I'm sure it also specified transfer privileges for pregnant women. Depending on who you talk to, it was either an excellent piece of progressive social/labor reform legislation or a vile, oppressive bill which cowtowed to the hysterical fears of the uneducated masses. In any case, the result was that several large companies announced that the cost of doing business in Sufolk county just got too high and that they would take their planned expansions elsewhere. -- Roy Smith, System Administrator Public Health Research Institute {allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net "The connector is the network" [According to the July 10, 1988 NY _Times_ the Suffold law does not address the pregnancy issue. Another article in the _Times_ (unfortunately, when I cut it out of the paper, I didn't note the date) says: ...a new law passed on Tuesday by the Suffolk County Legislature requiring companies to subsidize annual eye examinations for VDT qorkers and eyeglasses or contact lenses if needed because of working on terminals. The law was not based on concerns about radiation emissions or miscarriages, according to its backers, but rather on studies, here and abroad, that detected such ailments as eyestrain, stiff necks, and crippling hand and wrist pains among workers who put in long hours at terminals. The American Academiy of Opthalmology...today reiterated its position that "there is no convincing scientific evidence that VDT's are hazardous to the eyes." In other words, it's a similar situation--the law was passed before conclusive evidence as to damage. That is either playing it safe or playing it scared. TR]
ekwok@decwrl.dec.com (Edward C. Kwok) (09/15/88)
In article <5303@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> skyler@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Patricia Roberts) writes: >. It has not been shown that there is a >cause-effect relationship between VDTs and miscarriage; there have >been clusters of miscarriages which may be due to things other than >VDTs. There was recently a study by the Kaiser Foundation hospitals in the Northern California region, and found that women working with VDT have significantly higher miscarriage rate than the general population. I don't know about the details of the study, but I kind of doubt the results. (How do you separate the other aspects of work from the use of VDT? For example, if programmers who don't use VDT has appreciably lower miscarriage rate than those programmers working with VDT? Comparing very different jobs (say, programmers versus construction workers) and blame it on the VDT is not fair: maybe jobs with VDT are inherently more stressful, quite unlikely though. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Just as sure as I am a major in the Union army." - Somebody famous said that - [An article on this study was posted in this group early on. The group has been archived, so if anyone needs a copy, it's still around. Note that a more recent article in the NY _Times_ indicates that job stress does have something to do with it. Also, an article on miscarriages in _Time_ (I'll grant it's not a magazine I trust very far, so this may be wrong) says that 1/3 of all pregnancies end in miscarriage and that women frequently miscarriage without even knowing they were pregnant. Hence, a study like the one at Kaiser might show a high incidence of mis- carriage simply because women found out they were pregnant and found out they miscarried when, under normal circumstances, they would not have known either. TR]
coffey@ucsd.edu (pat coffey) (09/15/88)
Trish Roberts says > ... some unions are requesting that it be written >into the contracts that pregnant women may request a transfer or >sick leave or various other things rather than work with VDTs. ... >VDTs. I wonder if such contracts make women much less attractive >employment prospects--at least women in the child-bearing ages. I started working in the DP field in 1961 and found that the laws implemented to 'protect' women only prevented me from competing in this male dominated field. For example, in California, it was illegal for a woman to work more than 8 hours a day or more than 48 hours a week. In the case where overtime was authorized, it meant that my male co-workers could bring home more money. (remember the salaries in the early 60's -- $400 per month was very good) . If no paid overtime was authorized, and I needed to put in a few extra hours, I had to hide from the night watchman. Again, the men could stay as late as they wanted to get their work done. I know that it is illegal to discriminate in employment because of sex these days (it wasn't in the 60's), but I have an aversion to special rules and provisions for women. If VDT's are unsafe for women, then they are unsafe for men too! I've been using a VDT since we gave up our punced cards many years ago, and the only ill affect I have found has been sore shoulders. When I got a new, expensive computer chair and lowered my crt screen, the problem went away. _ _ Pat Coffey |_) (_ San Diego State University |