Do organic solvents ‘cause’ dementia?

Organic solvents have a wide range of adverse effects on cerebral functioning: the acute narcotic consequences of ingestion are well recognized and have been used to produce intoxication for thousands of years. A minority of such chemicals are proven neurotoxins and are hazardous even in low concentration. Since the late 1960s concern has been expressed that working men exposed to low levels of solvents, for example painters using oil‐based products or white spirit, consistently develop varieties of psychological illness which in their severest form have been described as a ‘dementia’. An examination of the literature, however, suggests that whatever long‐term adverse effects solvents may have, they do not appear to be characteristic, in either presentation or course, of dementing illnesses.