Human Resources committee  I don't have those figures. Certainly when I lived in Quebec the birth rate was declining rapidly. I don't know if it's been reversed by this or not. I would be surprised if this program had an important effect on the birth rate.

Human Resources committee  That's correct. There seems to be more risk in manufacturing than other jobs, but it is correct. Indeed, again in Quebec, a lot of nurses, for example, would be covered by the ergonomic demands of jobs and get reassigned because of the ergonomic demands.

Human Resources committee  That's true. It can vary on the pregnancy itself. It can vary on the woman's history of previous miscarriages, for example. I haven't said, but perhaps you'll allow me to now, that it's important also, if we are talking about preventive reassignment, that the woman's choice come

Human Resources committee  Actually, I wasn't particularly thinking about existing legislation. I think there is always a danger that if employing a woman is, for whatever reason, more expensive than employing a man, fairness may not be the first thought on the employer's mind. I raise this as a caution.

Human Resources committee  My belief is that it's more to do with the strenuous nature of the trade. We are currently looking at the effect of the welding fume on the outcome of a pregnancy. I don't have the results, but I would be surprised if the welding fume itself caused miscarriage, whereas there's go

Human Resources committee  Yes. In fact, this is one of the complications of a national program. The first trimester is the most critical for chemical exposures. For miscarriage it is probably the most important period, whereas for low-weight babies and stillbirths it's exposure during the last weeks of pr

Human Resources committee  If there were a program of preventive reassignment that women exposed to heavy work and welding fumes could be reassigned to early in the pregnancy, that would be the best way of protecting the child.

Human Resources committee  Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Human Resources committee  I think the last few weeks before the end of the pregnancy can be very uncomfortable for working women. They have fatigue. Their balance is bad. They're probably more in danger of having accidents at work. They have backaches. There's a lot of evidence that women are hugely unc

Human Resources committee  Certainly, we collect that information. I don't have it at my fingertips. I could guess that 50% would return immediately after the child. The majority of women in the study already had a child, and they were all welding at that point, so we can't say how many we lost before that

Human Resources committee  I'm very prejudiced in that I was quite closely involved with the Quebec system, which is splendid at protecting the health of women but is a very expensive program. If it were feasible to have such a program across Canada, I think it would assist pregnant women enormously. This

Human Resources committee  Sorry, I had no idea the question was to me. To some extent, as Mr. Lafrance said, it is the employer's job to find the reassignment. If the employer has no wish to keep the woman at work, he or she won't try very hard necessarily to reassign. We do find the reassignment is much

Human Resources committee  You clearly wouldn't need preventive withdrawal if the workplace was wholly safe, but at the moment, most of the occupational exposure limits and regulations in Canada have been based on the work of men and the susceptibilities of men rather than women. One of the major issues is

Human Resources committee  Could I come in to answer that question? This is Nicola Cherry. Amongst the welders in the women we studied, over half weren't reassigned. They stopped work without reassignment, and they stopped work at about 17 weeks' pregnancy, so they stopped very early if they were not reass

Human Resources committee  I'm afraid I can't. The Brazil study was fairly briefly reported, and I am not really in a position to make a comment on it.