Hospital Histology Technicians

Neurobehavioral symptoms, disturbed mental and neurological function, and respiratory symptoms were reported in histology technicians as a result of their exposure to formaldehyde (0.35), ethanol (-0.31), chloroform (1.97), toluene (2.73), and xylene (3.15). The symptoms observed could not be attributed to the individual chemicals at the low levels of exposure J52l This study illustrates the propensity of some lipophilic-hydrophilic 

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Formaldehyde exposure is not known to cause neurobehavioral symptoms or disturbed mental of neurologic function. Kilburn et al., however, found that exposure by hospital histology technicians to formaldehyde, xylene, and toluene produced such effectsJ2°l No attempt was made to explain these results. 

In a study of hospital histology technicians it was found that these workers had greater disturbances of memory, mood, equilibrium, and sleep and had greater frequencies of headaches than other unexposed clerical workers in the same hospitals. The chemicals they were exposed to included... 

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