Sensory thresholds among construction trade painters: a cross-sectional study using new methods for measuring temperature and vibration sensitivity.

Instruments that measure quantitatively sensory threshold to vibration and temperature difference were used to test 93 construction trade painters and a reference group of 105 healthy construction and industrial workers who were not painters. A "forced-choice" testing procedure, and an algorithm for threshold estimation (the "Best PEST"), was used for the Temperature Sensitivity Tester and the Vibratron. The method of limits procedure was used for the Biothesiometer. When measured with the Vibratron, painters in the older age stratum were found to have significantly higher vibration thresholds than the reference group. Painters had significantly more temperature sensitivity thresholds classified as "high" than the reference group. Among painters, exposure intensity and cumulative exposure over the past year was positively associated with vibration thresholds estimated using the Vibratron. Lifetime cumulative exposure, cumulative exposure over the previous month, and exposure intensity were positively associated with vibration thresholds estimated using the Biothesiometer.