VISUAL-EVOKED POTENTIALS IN RUBBER FACTORY-WORKERS

Pattern reversal visual evoked potentials (pVEP) were studied in 39 ma le rubber factory workers in the age range of 18-55 years and 20 contr ol subjects (aged 18-46 years) not exposed to the rubber factory envir onment. Results revealed that 20 (51%) rubber factory workers had abno rmal latencies of wave P-1 (dominant component of pVEP) as per accepte d criteria of 99% tolerance limit set for the control group (i.e. any value above mean + 3 SD of control was considered abnormal). The secti on-wise per cent distribution of abnormalities was vulcanization (83%) , tubing (75%), calendering (60%), loading (38%) and mixing (14%). Thi s study provides electrophysiological evidence that rubber factory env ironments affect the conduction processes in optical pathways from the ir origin in the retina to striate cortex. However, this study has its limitations in not identifying the specific chemical(s) causing these changes in VEF.