[Dynamics of the intellectual changes in workers exposed to long-term effect of carbon dioxide]

In workers exposed for many years to carbon disulphide toxic effects of this substance on the central nervous system can be observed. These effects manifest themselves in intellectual function disorders. The aim of the present study was to answer the following questions: a) does the whole period of exposure to CS2 seriously affect a decrease in intellectual efficiency level, b) what is the dynamics of these changes in relation to the exposure duration? For the purpose of a study which included 120 employees of plants producing artificial fibres who were exposed to CS2 for a long time the following techniques were used: Wechsler's Intelligence Scale for Adults, A. L. Benton's Visual Memory Test, T.;. Graham and B. S. Kendall's Memory-for-Design Test and L. Bender's Visual Motor Gestalt Test. The results obtained indicate that: a) rate of decrease in intellectual functions level depends on exposure duration and concerns those workers who had been exposed to CS2 for about 30 years; b) serious disorders are observed in such skills as: acoustic and visual memory, symbolic thinking, ability to plan and anticipate events, graphomotoric functions and mental work rate.