Brain May Never Fully Recover from Exposure to Paint, Glue, Degreasers

People who are exposed to paint, glue or degreaser fumes at work may experience memory and thinking problems decades after their exposure, according to a study recently published in Neurology. The study involved 2,143 retirees from the French national utility company. Researchers assessed the workers’ lifetime exposure to chlorinated solvents, petroleum solvents and benzene, including the timing of last exposure and lifetime dosage. Participants took eight tests of their memory and thinking skills an average of 10 years after they had retired, when they were an average age of 66. A total of 59 percent of the participants had impairment on one to three of the eight tests; 23 percent had impairment on four or more tests; 18 percent had no impaired scores. The research found that people with high, recent exposure to solvents were at greatest risk for memory and thinking deficits. “The people with high exposure within the last 12 to 30 years showed impairment in almost all areas of memory and thinking, including those not usually associated with solvent exposure,” said study author Erika L. Sabbath, ScD, of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. “But what was really striking was that we also saw some cognitive problems in those who had been highly exposed much longer ago, up to 50 years before testing. This suggests that time may not fully lessen the effect of solvent exposure on some memory and cognitive skills when lifetime exposure is high.” To learn more about the study, click here.