If you have been exposed to benzene while at work and are now suffering serious health conditions such as ACUTE MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA, please Contact a Benzene Lawyer.

 

 

Benzene Related Illnesses

• Blood disorders

Benzene Exposure Can Cause
Acute myelogenous leukemia
Aplastic Anemia
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Myelodysplastic syndrome

 

Benzene Risk

It may take up to twenty years to develop symptoms of benzene health conditions. Although using benzene in the U.S. as a solvent has been banned for many years now, workers using solvents continue to be exposed to benzene because it is still present in some degree in most petroleum solvents.
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Benzene Associated to Many Health Effects

Continuous Benzene Exposure was found to lead to aplastic anemia and leukemia in the late 19th century. Cases of acute myelodysplastic leukemia were also reported during this period with benzene exposure. It was then noticed that there was a link to the Benzene Exposure and toxicity to the bone marrow. Studies that were performed in Italy and Turkey showed the mortality ratio of leukemia amongst the benzene exposed workers to be higher than in people that were not exposed to benzene.



 

Health Hazard Information
-From the EPA Health Effects Notebook for Hazardous Air Pollutants-Draft

Acute Effects:

  • Benzene exposure with ethanol can increase benzene toxicity.
  • Neurological symptoms of inhalation include drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, and unconsciousness in humans. Death may result from exposure to very high levels of benzene. Ingestion of large amounts of benzene may result in vomiting, dizziness, convulsions, and death in humans.
  • Exposure to liquid and vapor may irritate the skin, eyes, and upper respiratory tract. Redness and blisters may result from dermal exposure.
  • Animal studies show neurologic, immunologic, and hematologic effects from inhalation and oral exposure.
  • Tests involving acute exposure of animals, such as the LC50 and LD50 tests in rats, mice, rabbits, and guinea pigs, have demonstrated benzene to have low acute toxicity from inhalation, moderate acute toxicity from ingestion, and low or moderate acute toxicity from dermal exposure.

Chronic Effects (Noncancer):

  • Chronic (long-term) inhalation of benzene causes disorders in the blood in humans. -Benzene specifically affects bone marrow (the tissues that produce blood cells). Aplastic anemia, excessive bleeding, and damage to the immune system (by changes in blood levels of antibodies and loss of white blood cells) may develop.
  • In animals, chronic inhalation and oral benzene exposure produces the same effects as seen in humans.
  • Benzene causes both structural and numerical chromosomal aberrations in humans.
  • The RfC and RfD for benzene are under review by EPA.

Reproductive/Developmental Effects:

  • Menstrual disorders and a decreased size of ovaries have been observed in women occupationally exposed to high levels of benzene.
  • Several occupational studies suggest that benzene may impair fertility in women exposed to high levels.
  • Available human data on the developmental effects of benzene are inconclusive due to concomitant exposure to other chemicals, inadequate sample size, and lack of quantitative exposure data.
  • Adverse effects on the fetus, including low birth weight, delayed bone formation, and bone marrow damage, have been observed where pregnant animals were exposed to benzene by inhalation.

Cancer Risk:

  • Increased incidence of leukemia (cancer of the tissues that form white blood cells) has been observed in humans occupationally exposed to benzene.
  • EPA has classified benzene as a Group A, known human carcinogen.
  • EPA uses mathematical models, based on human and animal studies, to estimate the probability of a person developing cancer from breathing air containing a specified concentration of a chemical.
  • EPA calculated an inhalation unit risk estimate of 8.3 × 10-6 (µg/m3)-1. EPA estimates that, if an individual were to breathe air containing benzene at 0.1 µg/m3 over his or her entire lifetime, that person would theoretically have no more than a one-in-a-million increased chance of developing cancer as a direct result of breathing air containing this chemical.
  • Similarly, EPA estimates that breathing air containing 1.0 µg/m3 would result in not greater than a one-in-a-hundred thousand increased chance of developing cancer, and air containing 10.0 µg/m3 would result in not greater than a one-in-ten thousand increased chance of developing cancer.
  • EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, for a hazard ranking under Section 112(g) of the Clean Air Act Amendments, has ranked benzene in the nonthreshold category. The 1/ED10 value is 0.27 per (mg/kg)/d and this would place it in the medium category under Superfund's ranking for carcinogenic hazard.


Workplace Benzene Exposure Limits

OSHA - The legal airborne permissible exposure limit is 1 ppm averaged over an 8-hour workshift and 5 ppm not to be exceeded during any 15-minute work period.

NIOSH - The recommended airborne exposure limit is 0.1 ppm averaged over a 10-hour workshift and 1 ppm not to be exceeded during any 15-minute work period.

ACGIH - The recommended airborne exposure limit is 0.5 ppm averaged over an 8-hour workshift and 2.5 ppm as a short-term exposure limit.



If you have been exposed to benzene while at work and are now suffering serious health conditions such as such as acute myelogenous leukemia, please Contact a Benzene Lawyer .