The intermediate-mass Standard Model Higgs boson at the NLC: reducible and irreducible backgrounds to the Bjorken production channel

Both the reducible and irreducible backgrounds to the Higgs production channel \eehz\ at a Next Linear Collider (NLC) are studied, for the Standard Model (\sm) Higgs boson in the intermediate-mass range. A phenomenological analysis that does not exploit any form of tagging on the Higgs decay products is assumed.