Academic Article

Publisert

  • 1994

A cross-sectional study was conducted at a Norwegian primary aluminum plant. All workers aged 61-66 years were offered early retirement benefits. Among the workers, 47 met the study criteria and 38 (81%), comprising 14 potroom workers, 8 foundry workers, and 16 controls, volunteered to participate. They were tested with a neuropsychological test battery. Workers in potrooms with Søderberg electrolytic cells were found to show signs of impairment of the nervous system. A test for tremor discriminated significantly between the potroom group and the controls. There was a suggestion of increased risk of impaired visuospatial organization and a tendency to a decline in psychomotor tempo in the potroom workers. We suggest that the above findings may be related to long-term occupational exposure in the potroom, and further to chronic low-dose exposure to aluminum.

Bast-Pettersen, Rita; Drabløs, Per Arne; Goffeng, Lars Ole; Thomassen, Yngvar; Torres, Carl G.
American Journal of Industrial Medicine Wiley-Liss Inc., American Journal of Industrial Medicine 25(5): 649–662
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