Module 3: Toxicology - Section 18: Reproductive Health Disorders in the Workplace | ||||
TOX 18.6 Reproductive Risk Assessment and Reproductive Risk Communication |
Employees have a legal and ethical right to know about hazards they face in the workplace and a reproductive risk assessment should help to provide information for this purpose. The steps generally conducted in a toxicological risk assessment may be adapted in simplified form for the clinical work-up, including:
Building on the information gathered during the risk assessment process, risk communication is the logical follow-up. It is important to always consider that the threat or actual fact of adverse reproductive outcome has a profound impact on an individual’s life and must be dealt with sensitively. All questions must be answered truthfully and completely. A description of the lack of adequate knowledge and research data but the need for caution must be stressed. The timing of exposure and of the first contact with the risk communication should conducted prior to actual exposure in order to intervene at the primary prevention stage. The options available for the female worker should be presented in such a way that the medical impact as well as the economic consequences of decisions are understood and discussed. The occupational medical practitioner may need to communicate the risks to the employer as well, in order to resolve the situation. The medical confidentiality of the involved individual must however be maintained.
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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