SOLVENTS AND COLOR DISCRIMINATION ABILITY - NONREPLICATION OF PREVIOUS FINDINGS

Previous research has shown exposure-related increases in the prevalen ce of acquired color vision deficits among printers. We administered t he Lanthony D-15 desaturated test of color vision to 82 print shop wor kers. Two tests of cognitive function, Trails A and B and the Symbol D igit Modalities Test, were also administered. Personal air sampling in dicated that current exposure to organic solvents was highest among pr inters and lowest among bindery workers. In contrast to previous studi es, the age-adjusted quantitative Lanthony D-15 desaturated test error scores did not differ significantly between exposure groups, and the proportion of subjects with greater-than-or-equal-to 1 error was great er in the lower-exposure, rather than higher-exposure, groups (P = .03 ). Of note, the proportion of subjects with greater-than-or-equal-to 2 errors did not differ significantly between groups (P = .24). Cogniti ve tests showed no significant association with exposure. These result s are discussed in the context of methodological issues related to lig hting sources, reliability of test results, and establishment of crite ria for identifying deficits.