Neurobehavioral and respiratory findings in jet engine repair workers: A comparison of exposed and unexposed volunteers.
Workers repairing jet engines had respiratory, rheumatic, and neurobehavioral symptoms. They had welded and ground stainless steel parts using hard metal tools and cleaned metal with chlorinated and fluorinated organic solvents. We compared 154 workers and 112 unexposed subjects, all volunteers of similar ages and with similar educational levels, for abnormalities on chest radiographs, spirometric measurements, and questionnaires. Also appraised were performance of reaction time, balance, blink reflex latency, color discrimination, Culture Fair, vocabulary, slotted pegboard, trail making A and B, profile of mood states (POMS), and frequencies of 35 symptoms. Compared to unexposed subjects, workers had significantly more respiratory symptoms but no differences in pulmonary function. They had significantly prolonged simple and choice reaction time (P<0.0001), and abnormal balance with eyes open and eyes closed (P<0. 0001), and abnormal color discrimination. Blink reflex latency was abnormal in both exposed workers and in local unexposed compared to other reference groups. Focus of the inquiry on lung disease helped ensure that for neurobehavioral tests confounding factors were minimal and known biases were small. We tentatively attribute the neurobehavioral impairments and increased symptom frequencies to chlorinated solvent exposure. Excessive respiratory symptoms are attributed to welding stainless steel combined with cigarette smoking. Specifically, manganese exposure may have affected the respiratory and the central nervous systems.
Kilburn
K H
KH
Environmental Sciences Laboratory, University of Southern California, School of Medicine, 2025 Zonal Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90033, USA.
D000328:Adult; D000401:Aircraft; D001767:Blinking; D001991:Bronchitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004391:Dust / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009825:Oklahoma; D010465:Perception; D011859:Radiography; D011930:Reaction Time; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012907:Smoking; D012997:Solvents / Q000009:adverse effects; D013193:Stainless Steel / Q000009:adverse effects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014896:Welding
D004391:Dust; D012997:Solvents; D013193:Stainless Steel