Estrin W J, Cavalieri S A, Wald P, Becker C E, Jones J R, Cone J E
Department of Neurology, University of California at San Francisco.
Arch Neurol. 1987 Dec;44(12):1283-6. doi: 10.1001/archneur.1987.00520240057012.
Eight hospital workers with chronic ethylene oxide exposure were age-sex matched with eight nonexposed controls with no significant differences in educational backgrounds and vocabulary scores. The exposed group performed more poorly on all eight measures of cognition, memory, attention, and coordination, with 71.3% less accuracy on the Hand-Eye Coordination Test. There was a dose-response relationship between exposure and the following: Continuous Performance Test and sural velocity. These findings suggest that neurologic dysfunction may result from long-term low-dose exposure to ethylene oxide, and that these effects may occur at exposure levels common in hospital sterilizer operations.
八名长期接触环氧乙烷的医院工作人员在年龄和性别上与八名未接触的对照组人员相匹配，两组人员在教育背景和词汇得分方面无显著差异。在认知、记忆、注意力和协调能力的所有八项测试中，接触组的表现都更差，在手眼协调测试中的准确率比对照组低71.3%。接触与以下方面存在剂量反应关系：连续操作测试和腓肠神经传导速度。这些发现表明，长期低剂量接触环氧乙烷可能导致神经功能障碍，且这些影响可能在医院消毒操作中常见的接触水平下出现。
