Behavioral studies in petrol pump workers

Behavioral studies were conducted on 90 petrol pump workers to study the effect of petrol on the central and peripheral nervous systems. Sixty-four control subjects of similar age and socio-economic status were also taken for purposes of comparison. Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI), Benton Visual Retention Test, Digit Span Test, Progressive Matrices, Digit Symbol Test and Mirror Drawing Test were used for behavioral studies. Immediate and delayed memory were found to be significantly affected in exposed workers. Intellectual capacity and psychomotor ability were also significantly affected (P less than 0.01). Psychomotor ability and visuomotor learning ability were more affected (P less than 0.05) among the exposed subjects than among the controls. However, stability and extroversion-introversion ability remained unaffected.