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OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between handling of antineoplastic drugs (AD), use of exposure controls, and risk of miscarriage. METHODS: Women in the Nurses’ Health Study 3 self-reported AD administration and use of engineering controls (EC) and personal protective equipment (PPE) at baseline. Nurses who reported pregnancies after baseline were included in this analysis. We estimated the Hazard Ratio (HR) of miscarriage in relation to baseline AD handling using multivariable Cox proportional regression modified for discrete time data. RESULTS: 2,440 nurses reported 3,327 pregnancies within a median of 3 years after baseline (range:1–8 years), of which 550 (17%) ended as miscarriages. Mean (standard deviation) age at baseline was 29.7 years (4.3). At baseline, 12% of the nurses self-reported currently handling AD and 28% previously handling. Compared to nurses who never handled AD, nurses who handled AD at baseline had a HR of miscarriage of 1.26 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.64) after adjusting for age, body mass index, and smoking. This association was stronger for losses after 12 weeks gestation (HR=2.39 [95% CI: 1.13, 5.07]), and among nurses who did not always use EC and PPE. Nurses who did not always use gloves had a HR of 1.51 (95% CI:0.91, 2.51) compared to 1.19 (95% CI:0.89, 1.60) for those always using gloves; nurses who did not always use gowns had a HR of 1.32 (95% CI:0.95, 1.83) compared to 1.19 (95% CI:0.81, 1.75) for nurses always using gowns. AD handling prior to baseline was unrelated to risk of miscarriage. CONCLUSION(S): We observed a suggestive positive association between AD handling and miscarriage, particularly among nurses who did not consistently use PPE and EC. These associations appeared to be more evident among second trimester losses.

To investigate potential attenuation of healthy worker biases in populations in which healthy women of reproductive age opt out of the workforce to provide childcare.We used 2013-2015 data from 120,928 U.S. women and men aged 22-44 years participating in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. We used logistic regression to estimate adjusted prevalence odds ratios (PORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between health and workforce nonparticipation.Women and men reporting poor health were more likely to be out of the workforce than individuals reporting excellent health (POR: 3.7, 95% CI: 3.2-4.2; POR: 6.7, 95% CI: 5.7-7.8, respectively), suggesting potential for healthy worker bias. For women (P .001) but not men (P = .30), the strength of this association was modified by number of children in the home: POR: 7.3 (95% CI: 5.8-9.1) for women with no children, decreasing to POR: 0.9 (95% CI: 0.6-1.5) for women with four or more children.These results are consistent with attenuation of healthy worker biases when healthy women opt out of the workforce to provide childcare. Accordingly, we might expect the magnitude of these biases to vary with the proportion of women with differing numbers of children in the population.