Review and update of leukemia risk potentially associated with occupational exposure to benzene

Journal Article · Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989 · Environmental Health Perspectives; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.8982267· OSTI ID:7150267

Brett, S M; Rodricks, J V ^[1]; Chinchilli, V M ^[2]

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1. Environ Corporation, Washington, DC (USA)
2. Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Richmond (USA)

Since the 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) proposal to lower the occupational benzene standard from 10 ppm to 1 ppm, numerous quantitative assessments of the leukemia risk of benzene exposure have been prepared. The primary difference between these risk assessments has been in the way in which benzene exposure has been estimated and in the models applied to describe the dose-response relationship. The more recent assessments, in attempting to estimate benzene exposures on an individual basis, and in applying models which make maximal use of the available data points, represent a substantial improvement over earlier assessments. In this paper, the authors will review the available risk assessments and the data upon which they are based and will present their own assessment, which builds on prior efforts. The reevaluation of the underlying data on the cohort that they judged to be most suitable for quantitative risk analysis suggested that past assessments may have overestimated risk by a factor of 3 to 24. In addition, they will present some recently made available data which suggest that the total benzene exposure of certain members of this cohort has likely been seriously underestimated. Further analysis of these data and pursuit of additional sources to improve the characterization of the benzene exposure of this cohort appear to be warranted in order to define more precisely the benzene-leukemia dose-response relationship.

• OSTI ID: 7150267
• Journal Information: Environmental Health Perspectives; (USA), Journal Name: Environmental Health Perspectives; (USA) Vol. 82; ISSN 0091-6765; ISSN EVHPA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

560300* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
AROMATICS
BENZENE
CARCINOGENESIS
DISEASES
DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS
HEMIC DISEASES
HUMAN POPULATIONS
HYDROCARBONS
IMMUNE SYSTEM DISEASES
LEUKEMIA
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NEOPLASMS
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PATHOGENESIS
PERSONNEL
POPULATIONS
REGULATIONS
RISK ASSESSMENT
SAFETY STANDARDS
STANDARDS
US DOL
US ORGANIZATIONS
US OSHA