Search

Elevated emissions of volatile organic compounds, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and o, p, and m-xylenes (BTEX), are an occupational health concern at oil transfer stations. This exploratory study investigated personal exposure to BTEX through environmental air and urine samples collected from 50 male workers at a major oil distribution company in Iran. Airborne BTEX exposures were evaluated over 8 h periods during work-shift by using personal passive samplers. Urinary BTEX levels were determined using solid-phase microextraction with gas chromatography mass spectrometry for separation and detection. Mean exposure to ambient concentrations of benzene differed by workers’ job type: tanker loading workers (5390 μg/m 3 ), tank-gauging workers (830 μg/m 3 ), drivers (81.9 μg/m 3 ), firefighters (71.2 μg/m 3 ) and office workers (19.8 μg/m 3 ). Exposure across job type was similarly stratified across all personal exposures to BTEX measured in air samples with maximum concentrations found for tanker loading workers. Average exposures concentrations of BTEX measured in urine were 11.83 ppb benzene, 1.87 ppb toluene, 0.43 ppb ethylebenzene, and 3.76 ppb xylene. Personal air exposure to benzene was found to be positively associated with benzene concentrations measured in urine; however, a relationship was not observed to the other BTEX compounds. Urinary exposure profiles are a potentially useful, noninvasive, and rapid method for assessing exposure to benzene in a developing and relatively remote production region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) exposure among workers at four stations of a major oil distribution company. Personal BTEX exposure samples were collected over working shift (8 h) for 50 workers at four stations of a major oil distribution company in Iran. Measured mean values for workers across four sites were benzene (2437, 992, 584, and 2788 μg/m 3 respectively), toluene (4415, 2830, 1289, and 9407 μg/m 3 ), ethylbenzene (781, 522, 187, and 533 μg/m 3 ), and xylene (1134, 678, 322, and 525 μg/m 3 ). The maximum mean concentration measured across sites for benzene was 2788 μg/m 3 (Station 4), toluene was 9407 μg/m 3 (Station 4), ethylbenzene was 781 μg/m 3 (Station 1) and xylene was 1134 μg/m 3 (Station 1). The 8 h averaged personal exposure benzene concentration exceeded the recommended value of 1600 μg/m 3 established by the Iranian Committee for Review and Collection of Occupational Exposure Limit and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. Mean values for excess lifetime cancer risk for exposure to benzene were then calculated across workers at each site. Estimates of excess risk ranged from 1.74 ± 4.05 (Station 4) to 8.31 ± 25.81 (Station 3). Risk was assessed by calculation of hazard quotients and hazard indexes, which indicated that xylene and particularly benzene were the strongest contributors. Tanker loading was the highest risk occupation at these facilties. Risk management approaches to reducing exposures to BTEX compounds, especially benzene, will be important to the health of workers in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important disease worldwide characterized by chronically poor airflow. The economic burden of COPD on any society can be enormous if not managed. We applied the approach proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) using the AirQ2.2.3 software developed by the WHO European Center for Environment and Health on air pollutants in Tabriz (Iran) (2011–2012 year). A 1h average of concentrations of ozone (O 3 ), daily average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) were used to assess human exposure and health effect in terms of attributable proportion of the health outcome and annual number of excess cases of Hospital Admissions for COPD (HA COPD). The results of this study showed that 2% (95% CI: 0.8–3.1%) of HA COPD were attributed to O 3 concentrations over 10 μg/m 3 . In addition, 0.7 % (95% CI: 0.1–1.8%) and 0.5% (95% CI: 0–1%) of HA COPD were attributed to NO 2 and SO 2 concentrations over 10 μg/m 3 respectively. In this study, we have shown that O 3 , NO 2 and SO 2 have a significant impact on COPD hospitalization. Given these results the policy decisions are needed in order to reduce the chronic pulmonary diseases caused by air pollution and furthermore better quantification studies are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]