It is possible that Mr B was exposed to lead during his 15 years of work in the battery factory. Lead is known to cause infertility, miscarriage, low birth weight and developmental disorders. You will have to motivate for a reproductive risk assessment to be done at Mr B’s workplace. In addition, you will have to refer him and Mrs B for full reproductive assessment including laboratory work-up to ascertain what the underlying reproductive health problems are. Communication with the couple should be empathetic and supportive to assist them in dealing with the developments in their lives.
Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed Jeebhay and Rodney Ehrlich, Health Sciences UCT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers, Leslie London, Sophie Kisting, Rajen Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo. Source available from here. For any updates to the material, or more permissions beyond the scope of this license, please email healthoer@uct.ac.za or visit www.healthedu.uct.ac.za.
Last updated Jan 2007.
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