Can new medical technologies decrease the incidence of occupational disease? Do they work to the detriment of other worker interests? Do they shift the burden of maintaining a healthy workplace from employers to employees, by keeping sensitive individuals from jobs that they are otherwise qualified to perform? These are among the central issues presented by the emerging occupational use of biological monitoring and genetic screening, as highlighted at the conference on Biological Monitoring and Genetic Screening in the Industrial Workplace, held in Washington, D.C., on May 12-13, 1983. The meeting was sponsored by the American Society of Law & Medicine and the Boston University Schools of Law, Medicine, and Public Health.

Research in progress on these issues, at the Center for Law and Health Sciences at Boston University School of Law, was one of the motivating forces for the conference. With funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the study, led by Professor Michael Baram, LL.B., of Boston University School of Law, is providing a comprehensive overview and analysis of the major philosophical, ethical, and legal issues involved.