SUBCLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS AMONG WORKERS EXPOSED TO LONG TERM LOW LEVEL OF ORGANIC SOLVENTS

有机溶剂的神经毒性是职业卫生领域中最重要的新兴问题之一。采用不同类型的中枢神经系统测试、外周神经传导速度测试、色视觉测试等神经生理测试，对接触过乙烯、甲苯、环己烷等污染物的日本工人进行了神经行为和心理影响的流行病学调查。甲苯和乙烯暴露水平与某些神经行为测试成绩的下降之间存在剂量依赖关系。在调整年龄、性别、受教育程度、饮酒等混杂因素后，尿扁桃酸或马尿酸与颜色辨别指数、尺腓MDL等性能评分呈显著正相关。我们的研究表明，低水平的乙烯或甲苯暴露涉及对中枢和周围神经系统产生不利影响的风险。研究还表明，这些测试是检测亚临床毒性神经病的非常敏感的参数。

The neurotoxicity of organic solvents is one of the most important emerging issues in the field of occupational health. We conducted several epidemiological survey on the neurobehavional and psychological effects using different kind of tests for central nervous system, neuroconduction velocity of peripheral nerves, color vision and other neurophysiological tests among Japanese workers who have been exposed to stirene, toluene, cyclohexane etc. There were dose-dependent relationship between exposure levels of stirene and toluene and decrements of some neurobehavioral tests performance. After adjusting confounding factors, such as age, sex, educational attainments, alcohol intake, etc, urinary mandelic acid or hippuric acid had a significant positive relationship with color discrimination index, ulnar and peroneal MDL,and other performance score. Our study suggests that a low level of stirene, or toluene exposure involves the risk of inducing adverse effects on the central and peripheral nerve system. The studies also indicated that these tests are very sensitive parameters for detecting subclinical toxic neuropathy.