High exposure to solvents during working life can have a negative impact on cognitive performance. And the effects are noticeable long after exposure has ceased.
The solvents frequently used in certain professional environments to clean metals, dilute paints, or even strip varnishes are far from being harmless to the health of workers. A study published on Monday reveals that exposure to industrial solvents during working life can have a negative impact on cognitive performance. And according to these French and American researchers (1), the most exposed employees even have cognitive disorders long after a strong occupational exposure to solvents. Unpublished results published in the scientific journal Neurology.
A 20-50% higher risk of poorer cognitive performance
To reach this conclusion, these Montpellier and Harvard teams looked into the issue of solvents through the Gazel cohort (20,000 EDF-GDF employees monitored for 25 years and whose stages of professional life are well listed) . The study in question, however, focused on only 2,143 men of this cohort aged over 55, retired on average for 10 years.
In total, 33% of these participants had been exposed during their working life to chlorinated solvents, 26% to benzene and 25% to petroleum solvents.
In order to assess the impact of these substances on their cognitive capacities, these retirees were subjected to a battery of eight tests. For example, they had to quote as many animal names or words starting with the letter P as possible in one minute.
And the results reported by these scientists are final. Researchers have shown that high exposure to solvents is associated with poorer cognitive performance. As proof, just for the so-called “high” doses of chlorinated solvents, retirees had a 20% to 50% greater risk of poorer cognitive performance.
Consequences even in retirement
According to the authors of this work, “these employees keep traces of their exposure to work, even if they are retired and even if this exposure has not been present for a long time. “Having participated in this research, Dr Claudine Berr, research director at Inserm adds that” few studies have so far evaluated whether this impact on cognitive disorders continued after retirement, that is to say say after cessation of occupational exposure to these solvents, and very few studies have well documented the exposures. Conclusion: these data are unprecedented even if previous work had already shown that repeated exposure to these liquids could in particular cause cancer and be harmful for fertility.
Finally, the latter concludes by indicating that from now on “treating physicians must pay more attention to these patients, for example by taking charge of the other risk factors for cognitive decline on which we can act. Among them, the vascular risk factors. They must also encourage them to have more leisure activities stimulating their cognitive functions. “
(1) Inserm Unit 1061 “Neuropsychiatry: epidemiological and clinical research” in Montpellier
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