Chemical Caution

THE HOPE AT IBM WAS THAT the company would put to rest some charges, long voiced by occupational-safety groups, that work in a semiconductor plant is dangerous. But preliminary results of a study by Johns Hopkins researchers, commissioned by the computer giant, show that women exposed to two chemicals employed in making silicon chips have a much higher risk of suffering miscarriages. Among 30 women who handled chemicals at IBM plants in New York and Vermont from 1980 to 1989, the miscarriage rate was 33%, more than double that of women who had no contact with the chemicals diethylene glycol dimethyl ether and ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate. The solvents are used to % etch away material deposited on silicon wafers and are also used in the aerospace and printing industries. IBM has alerted its workers, the silicon industry and the Environmental Protection Agency to the study findings. By law, companies cannot exclude women from jobs on the grounds of danger to their reproductive ability. IBM is offering workers the choice of transferring to other areas and says it hopes to eventually phase out use of the chemicals entirely.