Delivery outcome for women working in the pulp and paper industry.

A report on unusually many wasted pregnancies among women working at a laboratory in a paper industry gave rise to a cohort study on pregnancy outcome among all women working in the pulp and paper industry in Sweden during 1973--1977. A total of 890 deliveries were identified (899 infants born). The total number of malformed infants or perinatally dead infants was according to expectations. When the material was broken up according to occupation, it was found that, in the group of infants whose mothers worked in laboratories during pregnancy, the rate of malformed infants appeared high. These data, added to previously published data, seem to support the notion that work in laboratories represents a pregnancy hazard.