高科技產業的生殖危害探討

Abstract

自民國六十九年在新竹成立台灣第一個科學園區─新竹科學園區，台灣的工業發展，也由傳統的石化業轉型為高科技無塵室加工製造的半導體業及光電產業為主軸。 而其製程不同於其他產業，需要於精密的環境控制中進行，無塵室是此光電產業的特色，因此又稱之為清潔工業。但其實，其無塵室嚴格監控的是溫度，濕度，空氣中的微粒。而所熟知，半導體工業是一化學密集性的現代工業，包括以矽為主的積體電路產業及以三五族（如Ca、As）及二六族（如Zn、Se）化合物為主的光電（opto-electronics）相關產業，而其生產過程中所使用的有機溶劑因其產業的高度競爭，多為商業機密，但有許多已使用於製程中的化學物已在動物實驗被證實含有致癌的毒性，而致癌性的物質通常也都伴隨有生殖毒性。 由於遺傳複製機制的揭密，使許多科學的研究對生殖危害的定義有新的認識。過去對半導體及光電相關產業，因職業暴露所引起的健康效應，有肺功能侷限性異常、呼吸道症狀及皮膚炎、白血球減少，以及與人體工程壓力有關的上肢肌肉骨骼症狀，進而到癌症發生率或死亡率，及員工的生殖危害的影響。目前對半導體光電產業生殖危害已有的評估研究，有半導體廠女性工作者的自然流產率、較長的期待懷孕時間，生育力下降及月經週期異常等影響，但隨著半導體產業已由七零年代發展至今，近三十年間，對其子代健康是否會有延續的影響，是亟待探討的議題。 本研究將探討高科技產業員工的可能生殖危害，以光電產業員工其子代健康狀況最為指標的追蹤研究，探討此產業中的男性員工及女性員工其子代的健康狀況，出生健康，是否有出生缺陷及重大疾病，來探討父母的職業環境暴露是否有生殖危害是否對下一代有健康影響的生殖危害。 另一部份將更進一步探討，光電產業─液晶螢幕顯示器（liquid crystal display）製造廠的職業暴露是否會影響女性員工的生殖內分泌，以分析該產業女性員工生理週期，並以女性員工的每天尿液中賀爾蒙代謝物─促濾泡成熟激素（follicle-stimulating, FSH），雌激素（estrogen）及黃體激素（progesterone）濃度作為指標，來評估女性生殖健康及生育能力是否受作業環境中的揮發性有機物值濃度的影響

The semiconductor industry is one of the most important worldwide high-technology industries and growing rapidly, also the Liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturing. Those high-tech industries use many organic chemical solvents in the fabrication process. Many chemical which were regularly used in the manufacturing have been reported or suspected to have reproductive toxicity. Although their reproductive toxicity has been evaluated in animal studies, the knowledge of the reproductive toxicity in humans is scant. Increased risks of prolonged time to pregnancy and spontaneous abortion have been reported in the female workers of semiconductor industry. To our knowledge the potential risk of congenital malformations in the offspring of the workers in this industry has not been published yet. Thus, we conducted a linkage of registries from the Department of Health, Taiwan to explore this risk in the liveborn children of the workers in the semiconductor industry. The objective of the first part this study was to investigate whether female workers were at higher risk of any adverse birth outcome or death from congenital malformation. We obtained the employment information of workers in eight semiconductor companies from the Bureau of Labor Insurance, Taiwan. A total of 19,816 male and 27,610 female workers had been employed in these companies during 1980-2000. We identified liveborn children in the National Birth Registry and deaths from congenital malformations in the National Death Registry. We used multiple logistic analysis models to calculate odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals.A total of 14,812 and 24,223 children were born to male and female workers, respectively. After controlling for maternal age and children’s sex and year of birth, increased risks of deaths with congenital malformations [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 3.26; and 95% ;confidence interval (CI), 1.12 to 9.44] and heart anomalies (OR, 4.15; 95% CI, 1.08 to 15.95) were found in the male workers who employed in the industry during the two month before conception. However, there were no significant findings in the female workers who employed during the three months before and after conception. We found evidence for a possible link between potential paternal preconceptional exposure and an increased risk of congenital malformations in the heart and circulatory system. The possible etiological hypothesis needs to be corroborated in the future.

The objective of second part of the study was to determine the effect of organic solvents on menstrual cycle characteristics of female workers in LCD manufacturing by using questionnaire and daily urine metabolites of sex steroid hormones to obtain menstrual function data and assess the potential reproductive effect of occupational exposure in LCD manufacturing. The results of canister sampling analyzed showed that there were many chemical compounds with potentially reproductive effects in the fabrication area. The handheld VOC monitor showed that there were higher concentrations of total volatile organic compounds in panel and module areas than others. Female workers in panel (adjusted odds ratio = 7.68, 95% confidence interval = 1.51 to 39.15) and module areas (adjusted odds ratio = 8.38, 95% confidence interval = 1.72 to 40.95) and had higher risks of short menstrual cycles which have the length shorter than 24 days than those in array and office.areas. We found an increased risk of short menstrual cycles among the women working in panel and module processes. The conjecture of our study was that exposure to multiple organic solvents have substantial reproductive effects on premenopausal women. We found that the female workers in the module group had a significant increase of FSH and E1C in the early follicular phase E1C and PdG in periovulatory phase and FSH and E1C and PdG in luteal phase compared with those in panel and group. The multiple chemical exposures may diminish ovarian oocyte reserve or induced ovarian failure. shortening follicular phase leads to shortening menstrual cycle. Exposure to multiple organic solvents has substantial reproductive effects on premenopausal women.