Abstract

The occupational fluorosis risk factors were estimated in a three- stage study among the workers of aluminum and cryolite plants using dennatoglyphics as a genetic marker. This study helped: 1) to establish the existence of genetic predisposition to fluorosis and develop criteria for estimating it, and 2) to prove that predisposition to fluorosis was associated with the same dermatoglyphic features in the workers of both industrial groups. Multifactorial analysis of the set of 15 genetic and non-genetic factors was performed with the help of pattern recognition methods, and demonstrated reliable (90-100%) discrimination between two groups of workers: those who had developed fluorosis and those who had not. Each of the 15 risk factors under study was examined for the degree and the direction of influence. A PC software program was developed in the course of the study, making possible the estimation of individual predisposition to the disease. The method was used to investigate 397 disease- free workers in the electrolysis shop of an aluminum plant. Predisposition to fluorosis was discovered in 22 of them (5.5%)