Protection without Discrimination: Pregnancy and Occupational Health Regulations

Abstract

Occupational exposures of pregnant workers can give rise to foetal damage. Two major types of strategies against detrimental effects on the foetus are described: differentiated protection that reduces only the exposure of pregnant workers (or only of female workers) and unified protection that reduces the exposure of all workers to a level that is sufficiently low to protect against detrimental effects on the foetus. The former strategy is shown to be inefficient, as it does not provide the desired protection. Protection only of pregnant workers is insufficient since protection is needed early in pregnancy when it is not known, and in the case of substances that are accumulated in the woman's body even prior to conception. Protection of all women is also insufficient to protect the foetus since evidence indicates that preconception exposure of the father can also give rise to malformations. Furthermore, differentiated protection that requires more costly protective measures for women tends to aggravate the already prevalent discrimination of women on the labour market. It is therefore concluded that unified protection is the only efficient and non-discriminatory strategy against foetal damage.