Fertility history of currently employed male semiconductor workers

✍ Scribed by Steven J. Samuels; Stephen A. McCurdy; Dennis Pocekay; S. Hammond Katharine; Lavon Missell; Marc B. Schenker

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 623 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-3586
• DOI: 10.1002/ajim.4700280618

✦ Synopsis

Fertility among men working in semiconductor manufacturing during 1984-89 was assessed in a 1990-91 cross-sectional study of eight companies. Men working in wafer fabrication rooms (fabs) (n = 241, 165 births) were compared to men in nonfabrication (nonfab) jobs (n = 447, 300 births). Results showed that 17% of fab men and 14% of nonfab men reported ever trying for 2 1 year to conceive [relative risk (RR) = 1.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.83-1.741. Crude birth rates (births/1,000 person months) were similar [ 15 fab, 17 nonfab; crude fertility ratio (FR) = 1.09, 95% CI = 0.86-1.361. as were birth rates adjusted by Cox models for confounders (adjusted FR = 0.98,95% CI = 0.80-1.19, p = 0.79). Fab men who worked in furnace, thin-film, or ion implantation areas were more likely than nonfab men to report previous difficulty conceiving (25%, RR = 1.79,95% CI = 1.09-2.94), and their past fertility was lower (nine birthdl ,OOO person months; crude FR = 0.66,95% CI = 0.40-1.02; adjusted FR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.50-1.09, p = 0.12). Problems included lack of contraception data and misclasSification of fab subgroups.