Occupational neurotoxic diseases in Taiwan: A review of the outbreaks and clinical features

C. C. Huang*, N. S. Chu, T. S. Shih, T. N. Wu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the past 20 years, several outbreaks of neurotoxic disease due to occupational exposure have occurred in Taiwan. The most notorious outbreaks were 'Yu-cheng' due to contamination of polychlorinated biphenyls in cooking oil, lead poisoning in battery manufacturers and workers in a ship-scrapping yard, tile factory and battery recycling plants, and n-Hexane intoxication in press-proofers and ball-manufacturers. In addition, there were manganese intoxication in ferromanganese smelters, mercury intoxication in lamp-socket workers, carbon disulfide intoxication in viscose rayon workers and hydrogen sulfide intoxication in chemical synthetic plants. Although the incidence of occupational neurotoxic diseases has increased, the real incidence is probably still underestimated. The reasons for the underestimation include: 1) the education for workers in industrial hygiene is inadequate; 2) high risk workers are not screened well; 3) physicians are not well trained in early diagnosis of occupational diseases; 4) material safety data information is not readily available in the factories; and 5) the threshold limit values for toxic substances are relatively high in Taiwan, compared with other developed countries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)71-78
Number of pages8
JournalChang Gung Medical Journal
Volume20
Issue number2
StatePublished - 1997
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Encephalopathy
  • Neurotoxicity
  • Occupational diseases
  • Polyneuropathy

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