UC Davis-Semiconductor Industry Association Study

The University of California at Davis (UC Davis)-Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) study was proposed in 1988 and implemented in 1989. The UC Davis study was designed to test the h5 othesis that semiconductor manufacturing presents an increased risk of miscarriage to female workers. This was a h5 othesis testing study rather than the 

There were actirally three different components to the study a cross-sectional component an historical cohort component and a prospective component. Central to each of these studies was an exposure assessment. [ This expostrre assessment categorized the study subjects into related exposure groups and assigned them a relative ranking (i. e., high exposure, low exposure, etc.). 

The highest risk group identified in the historical component of the study was the masking supergroup with an adjusted relative risk of 1.78. 

To select women for inclusion in the prospective component of the study, 2,639 women completed a questionnaire to determine their eligibility. To be eligible a woman must have been at risk of becoming pregnant (i.e. not sterilized, etc). Four hundred fourteen (414) women were selected from California and Utah semiconductor fabs and followed. Daily urine samples were submitted, standardized interviews were conducted, and daily diaries were submitted by the study participants. Information on sexual activities, menstrual cycle length and variability, confounding exposures, work activities and exposures were collected. The urine samples were analyzed by the UC Davis Endocrine Laboratory. 

The information necessary to assign subjects to exposure groups came from several sources  

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