Construction workers are routinely exposed to neurotoxicants with little or no protection or medical monitoring of health effects. The proposed cross- sectional study will compare the neurobehavioral performance of 60 workers in each of four exposure groups: lead (iron workers), lead and solvents (commercial painters), solvents (house painters), and minimally exposed controls (dry wallers). Subjects will be recruited from the Iron Workers Union and the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades (IBPAT). Subjects will be matched across the four groups on age, gender, ethnicity, and baseline ability. The relationship between blood lead, XRF of bone lead, occupational history of solvent exposure, and neurobehavioral performance will be quantified. In Year 3, a subset of the most highly lead exposed subjects (N=20) and their minimally exposed controls (N=20) will be followed longitudinally and re-evaluated with XRF of bone lead and neurobehavioral performance. It is hypothesized that: Workers with the highest levels of bone lead, as an indicator of cumulative exposure, accompanied by a history of chronic exposure to organic solvents will have significantly greater decrements in neurobehavioral performance relateive to the lead only, solvent only, and minimal exposure control groups.
