Employee absences, indicative

In the absence of such directly relevant records, such records of other employees with past or present job duties or working conditions related to or similar to those of the employee to the extent necessary to reasonably indicate the amount and nature of the toxic substances or harmful physical agents to which the employee is or has been subjected, and... 

In September of 1983, a female employee at DEC s (Digital Equipment Corporation s) semieonductor plant in Hudson, Massachusetts, indicated that she felt that there was an excess of miscarriages occurring among employees in the lab clean rooms. As a result of this allegation and the absence of internal data, the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health (Amherst) was requested to conduct a health study that focused on reproductive outcomes but would produce incidence data on other diseases in the worker population, as well. The study was begun in May of 1984 and completed in 1985. 

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