Workers of the printing industry and hepatic damage.

Background: Typesetting industry is still the primary instrument of communication, despite the development of new technological systems. This study focuses on the analysis of the hepatic effects induced by the use of some organic solvents employed in the printing industry.

Methods: We studied a group of 194 workers: 93 exposed and 101 not exposed. The level of the exposure to chemical pollutants were assessed through the environmental monitoring of blood concentrations and the analysis of airborne substances. The health survey was performed through the collection of the medical history and the use of hepatic tests, which were evaluated by calculating Mean, Standard Deviation, Student's t-test and X² test with Yates Correction, to investigate statistically significant differences in some hepatic parameters: AST, ALT, ALP, GGT, fractional and total bilirubin. The environmental data sometimes exceeded the TLV-TWA.

Results: The clinical evaluation of the hepatic parameters showed statistically significant differences as to the hematic concentrations of AST, ALT, GGT.

Conclusions: The results we obtained support the hypothesis of a risk among the printing industrial workers attributable to the hepatotoxic solvents. This risk seems to be related to the use of a mixture of solvents, although at low doses, and the analysis of the results obtained confirms the validity of the investigation for the health screening protocol adopted in order to identify subjects and/or population at risk of hepatotoxicity.