Neurobehavioral and Respiratory Findings in Jet Engine Repair Workers: A Comparison of Exposed and Unexposed Volunteers

Workers repairing jet engines had respiratory, rheumatic, and neurobehavioral symptoms. They had welded and ground stainless steel parts using hard metal tools and cleaned metal with chlorinated and fluorinated organic solvents. We compared 154 workers and 112 unexposed subjects, all volunteers of similar ages and with similar educational levels, for abnormalities on chest radiographs, spirometric measurements, and questionnaires. Also appraised were performance of reaction time, balance, blink reflex latency, color discrimination, Culture Fair, vocabulary, slotted pegboard, trail making A and B, profile of mood states (POMS), and frequencies of 35 symptoms. Compared to unexposed subjects, workers had significantly more respiratory symptoms but no differences in pulmonary function. They had significantly prolonged simple and choice reaction time (P