Psychological effects of occupational exposure to organic solvent mixtures on printers.

PURPOSE: Neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with long-term exposure to organic solvents have been investigated for a long time in many occupational studies. The aim of our study was to identify preclinical effects of low-level chronic solvent exposure on the cognitive performance of silk-screen printers.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted including 38 printers which were exposed to organic solvent mixtures and 45 controls without neurotoxic exposure. The psychometric test battery included nine tests and two questionnaires.

RESULTS

The sum of scales or the total score of the PNF was also significantly (p <0.001) higher in the exposed group than in the non-exposed. The printers performed worse in some psychometric tests than did controls. Cross validation with the psychometric performances resulted in 69.6% of participants being correctly classified (55.9% printers and 80% controls). Highly significant differences (p<0.001) between both groups of exposed and non-exposed workers were found for the mean values of the multidimensional psychometric score.

CONCLUSIONS

These results of our study proved not only that chronic exposure to organic solvent mixtures could induce a psychological effect but also that the psychological/psychometrical tests performed in this study were capable of predicting neurotoxicity.