Forty-two workers from a chemical plant producing inorganic mercury compounds were evaluated for neurologic, nephrotic, and ophthalmologic toxicity. Despite elevated blood and urinary mercury levels, routine clinical testing such as physical examination, blood chemistries, and urinalysis were generally normal. These findings from the routine examination are in contrast to the complaints of neuropsychological symptoms, elevated urinary n-acetyl B-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) levels, decreased motor nerve conduction velocities, and the presence of lenticular opacities on slit-lamp examination that were found, when organ systems known to be affected by mercury were targeted. More sensitive but objective indicators of toxicity need to be included in routine medical screening so as to help diagnose the etiology of neuropsychological symptoms and prevent long-term sequelae in workers exposed to mercury.

No abstract

This prospective study examines the causal relations among life events, chronic strain, and psychological distress. The influence of total number of life events; recent events; and undesirable, disruptive, and unanticipated events on marital strain and work/economic strain is assessed using latent variable structural equation modeling. It is hypothesized that chronic strain mediates the effects of life events on psychological distress. The data analyzed are from the first two waves of a prospective study on psychosocial factors and cancer mortality in a sample of skilled blue collar workers exposed to asbestos. A subsample of married and employed men within a relatively narrow age range was selected for this study to facilitate the investigation of the relations among life events, strain, and distress among individuals similarly situated in the life course. The results show that total number of events and recent, undesirable, disruptive, and unanticipated events increase work/economic strain and that, through this increase in strain, life events influence both contemporaneous levels of psychological distress and changes in distress. Life events do not have a direct effect on psychological distress when prior levels of events, work/economic strain, and distress are controlled. In contrast, life events do not have an impact on marital strain; rather, marital strain exerts a direct effect on distress. Undesirable, unanticipated, and disruptive events exert modest but significant direct effects on psychological distress in models including marital strain. These findings are discussed in terms of the place of the sample of workers in the life course, and implications for the design of preventive intervention programs are presented.

Painters in three shipyards, exposed to a wide variety of solvents, were examined. A short battery of performance tests, a detailed occupational history, and a special questionnaire to assess acute (prenarcotic, transitory) and chronic (persistent) neurologic symptoms was administered. The results of the neurobehavioral performance tests demonstrated decrements in central nervous system function in painters when compared with a control group matched for age, sex, race, and education. The prevalence of reported acute neurological symptoms among painters was increased significantly compared to other occupational groups in the same yards; for chronic, persistent symptoms the difference was not statistically significant. Performance test scores were significantly, negatively correlated with chronic symptoms but not with acute symptoms. No significant correlations between performance test scores and duration of solvent exposure or between symptoms and duration of solvent exposure were observed. The reversibility of such symptoms and of decrements in central nervous system function after cessation of exposure is still uncertain.