Video display terminals and miscarriage

Abstract

Concern about possible reproductive effects of using video display terminals (VDTs) was stimulated by reports of clusters of adverse pregnancy outcomes among groups of women who used VDTs. Exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted from VDTs was suspected of increasing the risk of miscarriage. Ten epidemiological studies have examined associations between VDT use and miscarriage, most of which were not originally designed to examine this hypothesis and suffer from methodological limitations. We review these studies and present previously unpublished data in support of our conclusion that for most women in modern offices, work with VDTs does not increase their exposure to electromagnetic fields or increase their risk of miscarriage. The miscarriage risk for women who work at high-stress jobs or with older, high-emission VDTs (ELF > 3 mG), however, is still uncertain.