Objective: To characterize the availability of reproductive and developmental toxicology information in the literature and the extent to which such information could produce alarm.
Methods: REPROTOX, a computerized data base, was evaluated as a surrogate for the available literature on reproductive and developmental toxicology. A review of 2528 summaries was performed and information in the summaries evaluated as nonreassuring or reassuring.
Results: Information on reproductive or developmental effects was available for about half of the summaries. Availability of information was greatest for pharmaceuticals (75% of summaries contained information) and was lowest for nonpesticide chemicals (36% of summaries contained information). Summaries contained nonreassuring information about two-thirds of the time. Information based on human data was variably available according to type of agent, ranging from a low of 5% of pesticide summaries to 88% of vitamin summaries.
Conclusions: Counseling efforts depend on a literature base in which information is missing half the time and in which animal data may be the only available source of information. Information is available more often for pharmaceuticals than for other classes of agents.