Behavioral changes during exposure to 1,1,1-trichloroethane: time-course and relationship to blood solvent levels

We report the results of an exposure chamber study in which volunteers were exposed to 0, 950 mg.m-3 (175 ppm) and 1,990 mg.m-3 (350 ppm) of 1,1,1-trichloroethane for 3.5 hours. The time-course of the behavioral changes and the relationship to blood concentrations of 1,1,1-trichloroethane were investigated. A pattern of performance deficits consistent with earlier work was found for some of the tests of psychomotor performance. The time-course of these appeared to be rapid, occurring in some cases within 20 minutes of exposure. For those tasks shown to be sensitive to 1,1,1-trichloroethane exposure, the development of performance changes followed the time-course of blood solvent levels. Two behavioral tests not previously used in this type of work were also employed. One was concerned with the distractability of attention and concentration (the Stroop test), and the other was concerned with analysing grammatical statements (the syntactic reasoning test). Different effects were found. In the Stroop test, enhanced performance was observed following exposure; however, the syntactic reasoning test was found to be resistant to solvent effects. Measures of short-term subjective well-being were not affected by exposure. It is suggested that the observations of time-course effects in performance and their relationship to change in blood solvent levels have implications for psychological test selection and for study designs for examining field exposure.