Viaene Mineke, Vermeir Griet, Godderis Lode
Department of Occupational, Environmental and Insurance Medicine, Catholic University of Leuven, UZ St. Rafaël, Leuven, Belgium.
Sleep Med Rev. 2009 Jun;13(3):235-43. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2008.07.003. Epub 2009 Feb 7.
A solvent can be defined as "a liquid that has the ability to dissolve, suspend or extract other materials, without chemical change to the material or solvent". Numerous chemical or technical processes rely on these specific properties of organic solvents in industry. Occupational exposure to solvents is not rare and some activities may cause substantial exposure to these substances in the workforce. Short-term or acute exposures cause a prenarcotic syndrome, and long lasting exposure conditions have been associated with various neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, e.g., anosmia, hearing loss, colour vision dysfunctions, peripheral polyneuropathy and depression, but most significantly with the gradual development of an irreversible toxic encephalopathy. For the last 3 decades reports and epidemiological studies have been published reporting sleep disturbances among other complaints, related to long-term exposure to these compounds. In addition, the question has been posed if solvents can be the cause of a sleep apnoea syndrome in exposed workers, or on the contrary, if these workers are misdiagnosed and 'common' sleep apnoea syndromes are the cause of their chronic symptoms of fatigue and memory and attentional disturbances.
溶剂可被定义为“一种能够溶解、悬浮或萃取其他物质，而不会使该物质或溶剂发生化学变化的液体”。在工业中，许多化学或技术过程都依赖于有机溶剂的这些特殊性质。职业性接触溶剂并不罕见，某些活动可能会导致劳动力大量接触这些物质。短期或急性接触会引起麻醉前综合征，长期接触则与各种神经和神经精神疾病有关，例如嗅觉丧失、听力损失、色觉功能障碍、周围性多发性神经病和抑郁症，但最显著的是与不可逆的中毒性脑病的逐渐发展有关。在过去三十年中，已经发表了一些报告和流行病学研究，报道了与长期接触这些化合物相关的睡眠障碍以及其他不适。此外，还提出了一个问题，即溶剂是否会导致接触工人出现睡眠呼吸暂停综合征，或者相反，这些工人是否被误诊，以及“常见的”睡眠呼吸暂停综合征是否是其慢性疲劳、记忆和注意力障碍症状的原因。
