Visual evoked potentials in rubber factory workers

Pattern reversal visual evoked potentials (pVEP) were studied in 39 male rubber factory workers in the age range of 18-55 years and 20 control subjects (aged 18-46 years) not exposed to the rubber factory environment. Results revealed that 20 (51%) rubber factory workers had abnormal latencies of wave P1 (dominant component of pVEP) as per accepted criteria of 99% tolerance limit set for the control group (i.e. any value above mean +3 SD of control was considered abnormal). The section-wise per cent distribution of abnormalities was vulcanization (83%), tubing (75%), calendering (60%), loading (38%) and mixing (14%). This study provides electrophysiological evidence that rubber factory environments affect the conduction processes in optical pathways from their origin in the retina to striate cortex. However, this study has its limitations in not identifying the specific chemical(s) causing these changes in VEP.