Benzene Exposure
Benzene causes leukemia. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency classifies benzene as a known human carcinogen. Even the companies who produce it and their industry lobbying groups agree on the danger. They confine their dispute to how much benzene the body can take and over how long a period before cancer, illness and death claim the person.
We knew benzene caused disease as early as 1897 when doctors linked it as a cause of aplastic anemia. Now we know it causes more than that.
One hundred years later, in 1997, the report to the Canadian Occupational Board on Occupational Diseases summarized links between benzene and diseases:
Benzene exposure causes:
- AML, acute myelogeneous leukemia (all variants)
- myelodysplastic syndrome
- aplastic anemia
- pancytopenia
These conclusions rest on case reports, epidemiology, chromosomes studies, metabolic studies and experimental evidence.
Considerable evidence links benzene to:
- chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)
- chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL)
- multiple myeloma
- myelofibrosis
- myeloid metaplasia
A number of studies report an association between benzene and:
- acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Hodgkin's disease
- thromborythemia
Current research, especially a large study in China in cooperation with the American National Cancer Institute and Mayo Clinic researchers, demonstrates a link between benzene and lymphatic cancers. (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, July 16, 1997) This study and others suggest a relationship between benzene and all cancers, neoplasms, related to blood, especially AML (acute myelogeneous leukemia).
Other suspected causes of AML include ethylene oxide, ionizing radiation, styrene, 1, 3-butadiene, vinyl chloride and paints. The adhesives used in plywood, particle board and other wood processing plants have links to AML. This type of leukemia does not run in families. AML normally has a chemical cause.
The most common cause, probably because it is such a common chemical, is benzene. It comes from oil and petroleum. Manufacturers put it in gasoline, cleaners, adhesives and a huge assortment of other products used in the home and workplace. Widespread and dangerous…
The American Petroleum Institute's own spokesman has said, "We recognize that benzene can cause leukemia at high levels of exposure, say 25, 50 or 100 parts per million in the workplace." (Environmental Health Perspectives, March 1994) Independent studies (independent meaning a study not funded by an oil company or oil lobbying group) find it takes much less benzene to cause AML. The independent studies show that the minimum safe level is 1.0 ppm which OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, requires by law. Many medical, health and safety professional groups in and out of government recommended a level ten times lower, 0.1 part per million, for safety. For example, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists recommends 0.1 part per million limit. Everyone who has looked at benzene knows it will seriously sicken or kill. The only debate: how much does it take; how long does it take?
For adults and children sick with any benzene related diseases, this argument about safe levels has little relation to reality. They are sick. The disease does not run in families. Chemicals cause most AML. Chemicals cause the diseases whatever the exposure:
- It can take 30 years or longer for some benzene related diseases to develop. Before 1978, high workplace concentrations were common.
- Children breathe more, drink more and eat more for body weight than adults. So, children put more benzene into their little bodies per pound than do adults.
- More toxic metabolites (the chemicals found when the body breaks down benzene) occur proportionally at lower doses than higher doses. (Henderson and Rogers, at Lovelace Inhalation-Toxicology Laboratory)
The exposures can happen in the home as well as work. On average, look for the job to be the source. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, we should look at the workplace first then turn to home-the site for childhood exposure.
The highest exposures tend to happen in the petroleum industry itself, from the oilfields, to the refineries and pipelines, to the service station or other end-users.
Rubber workers have a very high incidence of AML. Tire builders washed tires with benzene. Vinyl chloride occurs in high concentrations in rubber compounds. Vinyl chloride causes brain cancers, liver cancers (angiosarcoma) and AML.
Other workers in the plastics industry experience more exposure to benzene that leads to death. Environmental Health Perspectives, Dec. 1996, reported pilofilm workers had "a significant excess of acute myelocytic or acute monocytic leukemia (AML, AMLL). According to this study, additional death from AML results when workers breathe air with 1.0 parts per million of benzene. This is dose dependent-the more benzene, the more leukemia.
Plywood and furniture workers have unexpected exposure that can kill. The glues and adhesives contain some benzene and also phenols. The body breaks benzene down into phenols in the liver (Mary Smith, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkley). The phenols then act on the bone marrow to produce leukemias and all the related blood disorders. The bone marrow makes blood cells, so a chemical that acts on it affects the blood.
We have found study upon study linking benzene and other chemicals to AML and other blood diseases: from Turkish shoe workers, to parts washers, to printers, to painters, etc., etc. The list goes on. If you have one of these blood diseases or cancers, start looking for a chemical .
I am a lawyer but I am also an old mechanical engineer who designed pollution control plants for a living for a while. I am told I still think more like an engineer than lawyer. (I think the man is right). In cases like these, I revert to the old days to look first for the chemical link. If and only if I find such a link do I look for the law to see if there is a remedy. I also work frequently with a friend at another firm who started life as an industrial hygienist and environmental manager before he turned to law. He looks also for the scientific links first.
So, if you have any questions, even if you're not interested in legal remedies available to you but are interested in the causes of the diseases, call me at 800-748-9673 or hit the email link below here. We will do whatever we can. If you are interested in your legal options but you live in a state where I do not practice, still check with us, I may be able to help you find the lawyer you need in your home jurisdiction. In short, call if you think we can help you in anyway or help you find the person who can.
This practice covers Alabama and Mississippi. If we can help you; if you have any questions; call today, 1-800-748-9673, or e-mail, dennis@dennisharmon.com
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