Physical exposures in the work environment during pregnancy – a challenge for risk assessment

Pregnant women have been preforming work-related activities during pregnancy since time immemorial, from the traditional hunter-gatherer or forager society to today’s modern world. But ever since our society has been industrialized, exposure patterns for pregnant women have changed dramatically, and they keep changing. This change is due partly to exposure changes overall in the labor market and partly the changes in the gender balance in different occupations. To some extent, women have been protected from the most hazardous occupations, since these mainly have been held by men (1). But active strategies within Europe to move towards a gender-balanced work force have increased the number of women seeking employment in hazardous work environments. One example is heavy truck and lorry drivers, who are predicted to be 40% female by 2030 (2). Today, the labor participation rate for women is high, with a total of 67% in Europe and 74–80% in Scandinavian countries (3), leading to a workforce that eventually has as many exposed women as men. A gender-balanced work force across occupations brings diversity and thus benefits to the work site (4). But it also introduces a challenge, especially in exposed blue-collar occupations. So far, much emphasis has been given to chemical and particles exposure. This is a very important and crucial area for the risk assessment for pregnant workers (5, 6) but not the only hazard present in occupational settings. Too little attention has be...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health - Category: Occupational Health Tags: Editorial Source Type: research