Seventy-five workers exposed to styrene in four reinforced plastics plants in the Montreal area have taken part in this study. All subjects were tested for peripheral nervous system functioning during a period of continuous exposure; 12 were re-evaluated after a lay-off period without exposure. During the period of continuous exposure, a dose-response relationship between the environmental exposure and the sensory nerve conduction velocity (NCV) was demonstrated. Almost all workers exposed for at least one month to levels of styrene above 100 ppm had a nerve conduction deficit. The effects observed were not related to cumulated exposure. After a period of lay-off, slight changes in NCV were observed in accordance with a functional improvement. No excess in symptoms reported in relation to a NCV deficit was demonstrated. Biological measures of styrene absorption and excretion were used; they appeared to be better predictors of neurotoxic effects than environmental measures of styrene exposure.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.75887 |
Date | January 1988 |
Creators | Gautrin, Denyse |
Publisher | McGill University |
Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
Language | French |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Format | application/pdf |
Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.) |
Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
Relation | alephsysno: 000910301, proquestno: AAINL52200, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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