Pregnancy and Solvents
A large number of industrial solvents are known via laboratory testing to be
teratogenic to animals. This is known because researchers have systematically exposed
various animals to most of these solvent types of chemicals, and these test animals often
developed a malformed fetus. The observed malformations being found in the animal studies
include the following: limb and central nervous system defects in mice, slow development
and skeletal retardation in rats; and abnormal physical deformities in rabbits.
Many women of childbearing age are currently being exposed to organic solvents at the
places where they work. Ironically, work in the health care professions and work in the
clothing and textile industries involve a high level of exposure to organic solvents and
these jobs are dominated by women employees.
A ten-year study was recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association
that attempted to evaluate pregnancy and fetal outcomes following maternal occupational
exposure to organic solvents. This study had been conducted in Toronto, Canada and
compared the outcomes of two groups of 125 pregnant women. One group were those which had
been exposed occupationally to a potential solvent during their first trimester, and the
other “control” group had not been exposed to such a potential teratogen.
The exposed group had 13 offspring with malformation damage; the control group had only
one. The research team concluded that significantly more major malformations occurred
among the fetuses of women who had been exposed to an organic solvent. They further
recommended that a woman’s exposure to organic solvents should be minimized during
pregnancy.
(Pregnancy Outcome Following Gestational Exposure to Organic Solvents – A Prospective
Controlled Study; Shattak et al; JAMA, March 24/31/1999)
Back to Issue - July/August
1999
Back to 
