Psychological function changes among maintenance house painters exposed to low levels of organic solvent mixtures

The adverse psychological effects of long-term exposure to organic solvent mixtures were studied among 219 maintenance house painters. Their mean age was 42 years and the duration of exposure 22 years. 229 reinforcement workers of the same mean age served as a nonexposed reference group. The groups were also matched according to pre-exposure intellectual level. The painters average exposure to white spirit was estimated to be 40 ppm. The maintenance house painters were characterized by defects in short-term visual memory and prolonged simple reaction times. Some slight relationships were found between low test performances and various individual indices of long-term exposure to solvents. The results implied that adverse psychological effects existed even though the exposure level was much lower than the hygienic standard applied for white spirit in many countries.