Olfactory Dysfunction in Chromium Exposed Workers

Chromium is one of the representative toxic substance by occupational exposure which damage the mucosa of respiratory tract including nasal septal perforation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of chromium exposure on olfactory function and to obtain the fundamental information about chromium exposure. The authors performed olfactory function test, laboratory tests and questionnaire interview on the subject of three groups, that is, two exposed groups and one nonexposed group from May 1 to June 30, 1994. Exposed group 1 was 15 male workers without nasal septal perforation, exposed group 2 was 15 male workers with nasal septal perforation among 103 workers in 22 chromium plating factories, and nonexposed group was 15 male medical students. The gathered informations were histories of chromium exposure, habits of smoking and alcohol drinking, the concentrations of chromium in serum and urine, and asparate aminotransferase(AST), alanine aminotransferase(ALT), gamma-glutamyl transferase, etc. Olfactory function was checked by T and T olfectometer using phenyl ethyl alcohol(material A), methyl cyclopentenolone(material B), iso-valeric acid(material C), -undecalactone(material D), skatole(material E) and the results were expressed by detection threshold(DT) and recognition threshold(RT). There was a significant difference between exposed groups and nonexposed group in A, B, C, D, E substances by DT and in A, B, C, D substances by RT(P