Benzene Rings and Cancer: Personal Risk of MDS

Benzene and cancer link? Of course. It’s been widely known that benzene is a carcinogen. It’s a relatively more recent development, however, that a myelodysplastic syndrome risk with benzene also occurs. MDS symptoms in petroleum workers were found to be far more likely. The culprit? Benzene rings. That’s right- to paraphrase somewhat, benzene causes MDS.

History of Benzene Danger

Benzene is brought up in most introductory college chemistry courses. You probably learned about benzene rings in your first organic chem class, about how their alternating single and double bonds and free electron made the molecule something of a novelty, as well as a puzzle to figure out historically. It’s true, benzene rings are wonderfully interesting parts of nature.

Well-known structure of benzene. Image from Toxipedia.

Historically, benzene was thought to be useful for a few things we don’t still use it for today. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, benzene was actually used as an after-shave lotion. Nowadays, of course, chemical engineers know better than to rub this chemical onto our skin. It was still used in high school and college chemistry labs up until somewhat recently, and not even fifty years ago you could buy a tub of it at your local corner hardware store. Wow! The dangers of benzene had not become quite clear (or quite as publicized), not yet. Of course, half a century ago our nation didn’t have the same kind of personal injury lawyers it does today, either.

Benzene Use Today

Benzene today is contained in limited amounts in gasoline, and also used as an intermediary chemical in all sorts of various laboratories. Maybe you’ve handled it yourself, though hopefully you’ve followed all the appropriate lab procedures! (Chemical Engineering News would like to take this time to remind you that you should always follow safe lab practices. Safety first!) However, anything made from various complex petroleum hydrocarbon products can give off amounts of benzene in the right situations, and cigarette smoke contains a relatively fair amount too. If you’re a cigarette smoker, or you breathe in a lot of second-hand smoke or city smog, you’re consuming benzene as well.

Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) and Benzene

A study was done late last year that didn’t get a lot of attention, but may have even more impact on benzene safety concerns. The study, titled “Myelodysplastic syndrome and benzene exposure among petroleum workers: an international pooled analysis,” showed that petroleum workers- who are regularly exposed to benzene due to the nature of their job- had a greatly increased risk of MDS symptoms.

The study also looked at other health issues, such as acute myeloid leukemia, which benzene is known to cause. But the benzene association with myelodysplastic syndrome, and at such low-level exposure, is new to us. At lower exposures, MDS is the greater benzene risk.

Petroleum oil workers in a smokey environment. Image from Yahoo! News/Reuters.

Although there haven’t been any reported cases yet, this benzene MDS risk already has the attention of one Houston injury attorney. The law group made a benzene cancer link blog post that goes into detail on OSHA standards. In fact, the OSHA standards may not be high enough, as they claim benzene exposure up to 5 ppm in a fifteen minute period is safe, while the academic study found exposures of just 3 ppm for the same amount of time resulted in six times the chance to develop MDS from benzene. Oil workers who are at risk might want to look into their legal options, especially since these things may take years or even decades to develop.

Listen, we all know that benzene is dangerous. Nobody is selling it at the corner hardware store anymore. But even the levels we think might be safe, are actually causing us greatly increased chances of MDS and other diseases too- including chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Are laws and regulations going to be changed? Or will it take a major personal injury lawsuit for this to get noticed? Only time- and more chemical engineering research- will tell.