Pregnant women working in computer chip fabrication areas showed a 40 percent increase in miscarriages, compared to women working in non-fabrication areas, researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine recently reported. The conclusions come from the largest and most comprehensive health study of the nation's 225,000-worker semiconductor industry. The study also showed that the odds of a woman becoming pregnant were reduced by approximately 50 percent for fabrication workers during the study followup, says principal investigator Dr. Marc B. Schenker, a professor of medicine and chief of the occupational/environmental medicine and epidemiology division. The UC Davis researchers and their collaborators say their findings suggest that exposure to photoresist/developer solvents, including glycol ethers, may be responsible for the higher rate of miscarriage. In the three-year, $3.8 million study, researchers evaluated the health conditions of 15,000 workers from 14 company sites in seven states. The San Jose-based Semiconductor Industry Association funded the multidisciplinary study, but it was designed and conducted independently by the university research team.