This week, the Neurology journal published a study that looked at the effects that workplace exposure to benzene and other chemicals have on a person's mental ability, even decades after they had been exposed to the chemicals. The study involved 2,143 retired power plant workers in France. At least 84 percent of these retirees had been exposed to benzene, petroleum solvents, or chlorinated solvents in the course of their career. Regardless of how recent or how distant their exposure had been, these retirees had a high rate of turning in weak scores on thinking and memory tests.

The average age of study participants was 66. The retirees performed several different memory tests. The retirees with the most chemical exposure were found to be 18 to 54 percent more likely to yield low thinking test scores than their counterparts who had no exposure to chemicals. But even for retirees who had not been exposed to chemicals at the workplace for thirty to fifty years, there still appeared to be a correlation between their exposure and the tendency to score worse than other workers on mental assessments.

Researchers admit that it is theoretically possible for some other factor to be at play in these workers lives. But while this study cannot prove that this chemical exposure directly caused the poor test results, it does seem to align with what has widely believed to be the widespread dangers of workplace chemicals, which are thought to cause all sorts of illnesses, even cancer.

Chemicals such as benzene are present in about 12 to 13 percent of all U.S. work sites, and there are numbers of successful lawsuits that have pinned the blame for serious illness and even death on workplace exposure to chemicals such as asbestos or benzene. The sad thing is, with heightened safety procedures and the regular use of protective gear such as respirators, many of these workplace diseases could likely have been prevented.

If you or a family member have sustained a workplace injury or contracted a workplace illness, call a personal injury lawyer today to see what your options for getting compensated might be.