| Research Abstract |
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.
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