The number of car repair workshops has recently increased in Japan, and it reached 74, 741 workshops and 382, 760 car repair workers in 1979. Most of the workshops are of small-size and a large amount of paints and solvents are used there. But the working conditions and the environment are not necessarily well known. Therefore, we investigated 7 car repair workshops to make clear the working conditions and the environment, especially the actual conditions of the use of solvents and health of the workers. The average number of the investigated car repair workers was 5.7 persons per workshop and this was almost the same as the average in Japan. The consumption of paints per workshop was 56±50 kg/month and that of solvents was 137±93 kg/month. Twenty-three kinds of solvents used in the 7 workshops were analysed by gas chromatography. Toluene was most often and largely contained among the constituents in the solvents ingredients of which have to be legally indicated. Xylene came next. Mixtures of the petroleum class were most largely contained in the solvents the constituents of which have not to be legally indicated. The next one was ethylbenzene, which usually goes with xylene. The average amount of the constituents which must be legally indicated were only 42% in the solvents (N=23). The indicated contents and the analysed ones relatively well coincided with each other, but some constituents which must be indicated were found not declared. The short-term concentrations of the solvents at the breathing zone of the workers during painting were beyond the threshold limit value in 10 of 14 workers. But the time weighted average concentrations measured by personal monitoring were below the TLV in 12 of 13 workers and the average of the TWA was about 38% of the TLV in Japan. The painters showed a tendency to have more complaints of drunkenness, light-headedness, sorethroat, which suggested that the painters were exposed to solvents during work. The painters had significantly more complaints of diarrhoea and showed a tendency to have more epigastric discomfort, dullness of extremities and dizziness, indicating that the effects of solvents on the complaints could be suspected. In the laboratory examination, LDHs were significantly lower in the painters than those in the other workers, but the relation between the exposure of solvents and the change of LDH was not clear. It is considered that the working conditions, the environment and the health care for the workers in small-sized car repair workshops should be improved in order to prevent the workers from being poisoned by organic solvents.
