Color Perception and Environmentally Based Impairments

Decreased discrimination of colors caused by adverse environment, such as long-term occupational exposure to or consumption of drugs, substances, and food containing neurotoxic chemicals. Color vision early manifests adverse effects of exposure to an environment that contains neurotoxic substances [1, 2]. The acquired color vision impairments, or dyschromatopsias, can be very subtle (subclinical) but also may vary considerably in severity, increasing or decreasing as long as the responsible agent persists, and can become irreversible under long-term exposure and/or agent dose. There are several scenarios of exposure to hazardous chemical agents in the environment: