Chloracne and morbidity after dioxin exposure (preliminary results)

In this paper, 159 cases of chloracne contamination, reported from 1969 to 1975, in TCDD-contaminated production of the herbicide 2,4,5-trichlorophenol (2,4,5-T) were followed for mortality and morbidity up to 1996, when blood and urine tests were performed on 50 of these chemical workers ('exposed') and matched controls. In exposed workers, the most frequent cause of sick leave was chloracne, which persisted in 32%. Neurological symptoms were reported frequently (44% sleep disturbance, 32% headache, 30% neuralgia). BSR, leucocytes, gamma-GT, S-G0T and S-GPT were significantly higher than in controls. The effects of exposure (P = 0.002) and alcohol (P = 0.002) on gamma-GT were found to be independent of each other.