Neurological deficits in solvent-exposed painters: a syndrome including impaired colour vision, cognitive defects, tremor and loss of vibration sensation.
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Five individuals are described who had participated in a study of former dockyard painters. All had worked between 16 years and 45 years as industrial painters, much of the time inside ships. All underwent structured neurological examination, colour vision testing (allowing calculation of a colour confusion index corrected for age and alcohol), and detailed psychometric testing. An occupational history sufficient to allow estimation of past exposure to solvents was taken. All gave a history of exposure to high concentrations of solvents at work, and several described episodes of acute narcosis. All showed neurological deficits and some had overt neurological disease, although in no case had this previously been linked to their work. The most striking features, sufficient to constitute a syndrome, were acquired blue-yellow colour vision deficits, coarse tremor, impaired vibration sensation in the legs and cognitive impairment. Their estimated cumulative exposures to solvents ranged between the equivalent of 13 and 37 calendar years working at the Occupational Exposure Standard concentration (OES years). This study for the first time gives an indication of the concentrations of solvents likely to lead to serious neurological disease in humans. It serves as a reminder to physicians to take an occupational history from patients with obscure neurological or psychological impairment. (+info)
Assessment of dermal exposure during airless spray painting using a quantitative visualisation technique.
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The range of dermal exposure to non-volatile compounds during spray painting was studied in a semi-experimental study involving three enterprises and 12 painters. A fluorescent tracer was added to the paint and deposition of the tracer on clothing and uncovered parts of the skin was assessed using video imaging and processing techniques. A container (volume 36 m(3)) was sprayed with a colourless laquer (varnish) containing 66.7 mg/l fluorescent whitening agent. All painters sprayed the outside of the container. Nine painters repeated the painting a second time and five also sprayed the inside of the container. The painters wore white Tyvek coveralls, but no gloves. Duration of spraying the outside ranged from 4 to 21 min with a mean of 10 min and the amount of paint sprayed ranged from 3.0 to 12.8 l (mean 6.6 l). The mass of tracer deposited on the coverall ranged from 2.2 to 471 microg (90th percentile 256 microg), whereas, mass deposited on skin (i.e. the hands, wrists, and face) ranged from 0.01 to 52 microg tracer (90th percentile 20 microg). The quantity of tracer on the coverall was three times higher after spraying the inside of the container compared to spraying the outside, whereas the quantity on the skin was similar in both cases. On average 10% of the surface area of the coverall and skin was exposed during spraying the outside. Exposures, expressed in units of mass per area exposed were slightly higher for skin compared to coverall. In this study, deposited mass of tracer was correlated with an alternative exposure metric, i.e. surface area exposed multiplied by the duration of exposure, which has been proposed as a surrogate for uptake. Using a quantitative fluorescent tracer technique, it could be demonstrated that body parts which showed the lowest mass of tracer had the highest exposure as mass per surface area. Compared to other techniques which only determine mass, the ability to identify and quantify the actual surface area exposed is a clear advantage of the quantitative fluorescent tracer technique. (+info)
Two cases of paraoccupational asthma due to toluene diisocyanate (TDI).
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Two cases of paraoccupational asthma caused by toluene diisocyanate (TDI) are reported. The first patient was a metal worker in a machine shop situated near a factory producing polyurethane foam. Symptoms at work were not explainable by any specific exposure to irritants or allergens in the work site. As the patient recalled previous occasional work in the adjacent polyurethane factory with accompanying worsening of respiratory symptoms, a specific inhalation (SIC) test was performed with TDI, which confirmed the diagnosis of TDI asthma. The second case was a woman working part time as a secretary in the offices of her son's factory for varnishing wooden chairs. TDI was present in the products used in the varnishing shed. The SIC test confirmed the diagnosis of TDI asthma, despite the fact that the patient's job did not present risk of exposure to the substance. In both patients, symptoms disappeared when further exposure was avoided. These two cases confirm that paraoccupational exposure to TDI must be considered when evaluating patients with asthma not mediated by immunoglobulin E. They also suggest the need for more prospective studies evaluating the health risk for the general population living near polyurethane factories or other firms that use TDI. (+info)
Lead isotopes as a supplementary tool in the routine evaluation of household lead hazards.
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The advent of magnetic sector inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) allows rapid, accurate, and precise measurement of lead isotopes in environmental and biological samples at a lower cost than traditional methods. This may increase the feasibility of including lead isotope measurements as a routine tool to identify household sources of lead exposure to children. Here, we present three household case studies to illustrate how lead hazard evaluations by an environmental specialist could be supplemented with routine lead isotope analyses of potential lead sources and blood. Sampling for lead isotopes was undertaken following the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulatory guidelines for the evaluation of lead hazards in housing, and with the consideration of minimizing the additional costs associated with lead isotope measurements. The range of isotopic ratios within a single residence was large enough to allow the characterization of different lead sources, particularly when both major (e.g., (207)Pb/(206)Pb) and minor (e.g., (206)Pb/(204)Pb) isotope ratios were considered. These cases illustrate the utility of the lead isotope method to identify main source(s) of lead exposure to the child; discard unlikely sources of exposure to the child; point to sources of lead to dust; and substantiate or refine the environmental assessment based exclusively on lead concentrations and loadings. Thus, a more effective evaluation of household lead hazards would likely benefit from considering a) lead concentrations and loadings in and around the household environment; b) all isotopic ratios of potential lead sources within that environment; and c) information about behavioral habits, as well as an evaluation of viable pathways of exposure to the child. (+info)
Impact of occupation on respiratory disease.
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OBJECTIVES: This study identified occupations with a marked impact on sick leaves due to respiratory disease. METHODS: A national sick-leave register containing information on all sick leaves exceeding 14 days, physicians' diagnoses, and the occupational status of all manual and service employees in the private sector in Sweden was studied. Sick leaves during 1992-1994 (N=210,755) were analyzed with special attention to respiratory disease and occupation. RESULTS: Respiratory disease accounted for 4.4% of the total number of sick leaves. The incidence of long-term (> or = 90 days) sick leaves due to respiratory disease was 3 times higher in occupations with a high incidence than in those with a low incidence. There was a high correlation (r=0.80) between the incidence of long-term sick leave due to respiratory disease and sick leave due to all other conditions; this finding suggests that market and selection factors may play an important role in determining the overall risk for sick leave in various occupations. The proportion of sick leaves due to long-term respiratory disease out of all long-term disease was compared between occupations. Agricultural workers had a 46% higher proportion of long-term respiratory disease than metal workers. Industrial workers, food industry workers, and painters were also occupations with an increased risk. These findings could not be explained by differences in age or smoking habits. CONCLUSIONS: Major differences were found among manual and service occupations regarding long-term sick leave due to respiratory disease. Several occupations, in which exposure to respiratory sensitizers and irritants are known to occur, were among those in which workers had an increased risk for long-term respiratory disease. (+info)
Workers' dermal exposure to UV-curable acrylates in the furniture and Parquet industry.
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The use of ultraviolet radiation-curable coatings (UV-coatings) has increased rapidly in the parquet and furniture industry. Work with UV-coatings involves risk from skin exposure to chemically reactive, concentrated acrylates that are known skin contact irritants and sensitizers. Yet, the methods and tools for measuring and quantifying dermal exposure from hazardous chemicals directly on the skin are limited and methods to measure skin exposure to UV-coatings in occupational or environmental settings have been lacking. Skin exposure to UV-coatings was measured employing a quantitative tape stripping method that we have developed for this purpose. A pilot study was performed at three workplaces. In the main study, workers' skin exposure to uncured UV-coatings was measured at seven workplaces and on two separate workdays (rounds 1 and 2) within a six-month period to determine exposure variation. Skin exposure was measured at four standardized sites on the hand, 3-4 times per work shift. The forehead was sampled once. A questionnaire was carried out with the workers in both rounds to find out factors that can affect skin exposure to UV-coatings. The pilot study indicated that both skin and surface contamination to TPGDA-containing UV-coatings were common and varied up to 2110 microgram on the sampling area of 10cm(2). In the main study skin contamination due to TPGDA was found on 16 of 23 workers, at 6 out of the 7 workplaces, and from 36 (5. 4%) of the 664 samples. In round one 8.6% (n=383) of the samples contained TPGDA and in round two 1.1 % (n=281). The average TPGDA mass on all the positive samples (n=36) was 30.4+/-77.0 microgram for the first and second rounds alone this mass was 30.6+/-80 (n=33) and 28.3+/-16.5 microgram (n=3), respectively. Despite the limited sampling area and sampling sites, we could find residues of TPGDA at all sampling times, even at the beginning of the work shift. This may be due to transfer of UV-coatings through contaminated equipment, shoes and surfaces. Our study indicates that there is a risk of harmful skin exposure to UV-coatings in the furniture and parquet industry. (+info)
Exposure to organic solvents and personality.
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OBJECTIVES: Although cognitive and neuropsychological changes have been found after high cumulative exposures to solvents, it is not clear whether such exposures are associated with personality characteristics. To study this two groups of British and Chinese dockyard painters who had been heavily exposed to paint solvents have been investigated. METHODS: 260 Male dockyard painters in the United Kingdom, 539 local community controls, 109 Chinese dockyard painters, and 255 dockyard controls completed the Eysenck personality questionnaire, neuroticism (N) and social conformity or dissimulation (L) scales. The non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate differences in scores of personality traits between painters and controls. Adjusted relative risks for painters having high N and L scores were calculated in a Breslow-Cox regression analysis, and exposure-response relations were examined in multivariate logistic regression analysis. Non-parametric Spearman's correlation was used to examine relations between previously determined neuropsychological symptoms and personality. RESULTS: Both British and Chinese data showed that mean neuroticism scores of painters were significantly higher than controls, whereas scores of social conformity did not differ. Relative risk of being a painter increased significantly with increasing N scores, but L scores showed no such trend. In a case-control analysis, there were significant exposure-response relations for the N score. In the United Kingdom the odds ratios (ORs) (95% confidence interval (95% CI), were 2.03 (0.79 to 5.22) for 1-4 years of exposure, 2.38 (0.82 to 6.91) for 5-9 years, 7.05 (1.27 to 39.25) for 10-14 years, and 1.76 (0.63 to 4.89) for 15-41 years. In the Chinese painters, ORs were 4.66 (1.38 to 15.75) for 2-14 years, 10.03 (2.96 to 34.04) for 15-18 years, and 13.56 (3.78 to 48.59) for 19-43 years. Neuroticism was significantly positively related to neuropsychological symptoms in all subjects. Social conformity showed no association with neuropsychological symptoms in British painters and a negative relation among the Chinese painters. CONCLUSION: Increasing symptoms suggesting neuroticism seemed to relate to the duration of painting whereas scores for social conformity and dissimulation did not. The relation between exposure time and response suggests that increased neuroticism may be caused by long term occupational exposure to organic solvents. (+info)
A dermal model for spray painters. Part I: subjective exposure modelling of spray paint deposition.
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The discriminative power of existing dermal exposure models is limited. Most models only allow occupational hygienists to rank workers between and within workplaces according to broad bands of dermal exposure. No allowance is made for the work practices of different individuals. In this study a process-based, structured approach has been used to estimate dermal exposure from overspray generated by a spray painting process. Factors for spray technique, object shape and workers' individual work practices involved in the processes of droplet formation and deposition were incorporated into the model. The model was applied to predict dermal exposure of airless spray painters and the results were compared with exposure data. The predicted levels of exposure showed reasonable rank correlation with the measured exposure, although the model tended to over-predict the actual level of exposure. It was concluded that a structured, process-based approach has the potential to produce reliable estimates of dermal exposure. The reliability of exposure models of this type should be explored further and the relationship between the determinants of exposure should be validated by additional field studies. (+info)