Part II: the effect of long-term exposure to organic solvents on senso-motor skills: a cross sectional study

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Navah Z. Ratzon, | Estela Derazne, | Mario Sculsky,

Affiliations: The Institute for Occupational Health, Tel-Aviv University, Israel | Head Department of Occupational Medicine, Kupat-Holim, Central District, Rehovot, Israel

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Abstract: A heterogeneous population, with cultural and linguistic differences, could benefit from nonverbal assessment. This was the case with this research population, and in this constellation we felt that for continuity to cognitive evaluation of industrial painters we had to add at least two tests limited mainly to senso-motor aspects of human behavior. Moreover, this practical strategy decreased workers' tension regarding testing circumstances and yielded fewer possibilities for compensating an impaired function by use of other, unaffected ones. Reaction Time and Finger Tapping were the tests we chose because of their well-circumscribed elemental functional sensitivity to neurotoxic exposures. The research design was cross-sectional. Study population included 31 industrial painters who were exposed at work to organic solvents and 31 unexposed workers. Workers after long term exposure to organic solvents showed significantly higher response rate and decline in Finger Tapping scores in comparison to unexposed workers. The results showed a significant negative correlation between exposure index and number of finger tapping with dominant hand, non dominant hand and altering with both hands indicating that the higher the exposure index was the lower the number of finger tapping. It was also found that the affect of age on Reaction Time and Finger Tapping of dominant hand was significant among workers after long term exposure to organic solvents, whereas for the unexposed workers those basic functions were unaffected.

Keywords: organic solvents, exposure, finger tapping, senso-motor function

Journal: Work, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 159-164, 1999