The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have analyzed information obtained from an accredited laboratory. The lab studied blood samples taken workers from four different chemical polymer manufacturers. The Health and Safety Executive wants to know if there is any cause for concern that chemical can affect workers by exposure to organic solvents resulting in liver damage.  Data for four industries, all of which use a range of potentially hazardous chemicals, has been collected.  The Health and Safety Executive hope may shed light on any potential problems.

Use of organic chemicals in industrial processes : Health and Safety Executive

Many industrial processes rely on the use of organic chemicals such as volatile solvents. Such compounds are sometimes described as xenobiotics, meaning that they do not exist in nature in any meaningful concentration – their existence is solely the result of human activity. Many of these chemicals are hazardous, particularly by inhalation. Once in the blood stream they are capable of interfering with enzyme activity as well as interrupting genetic replication processes.  the Health and Safety Executive remain concerned about worker exposure although there is careful mentoring of the use of such chemicals.  As such the Health and Safety Executive takes the issue seriously . A preliminary study via the agency of the aforementioned accredited laboratory was done to investigate any potential problems .

The use of LDH: Health and Safety Executive

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is an intracellular enzyme. It oxidizes lactate in the presence of NAD+ (oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) .In addition, it reduces pyruvate in the presence of NADH (reduced form of NAD). It is also clinically of use to determine cell damage in a number of organs including heart, liver, muscle and blood.

iso-enzymes of LDH

There are 5 iso-enzymes of LDH. Changes in the level of iso-enzyme LDH-5 affect the liver functioning. Further, such high levels of LDH-5 deem to be a useful indicator of the initial stages of liver damage. That is, damage that may be caused by exposure to many organic solvents. One method of gauging liver damage is to calculate the ratio of LDH-5 to LDH-1. Note, the higher this value, the greater is the risk that liver damage is taking place. Therefore, HSE have deemed the value of this variable a threat to workers’ health.