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Occupational Exposure of Diesel Station Workers to BTEX Compounds at a Bus Depot

Author

Listed:
  • Raeesa Moolla

    (School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X3 WITS, Gauteng 2050, South Africa)

  • Christopher J. Curtis

    (School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X3 WITS, Gauteng 2050, South Africa)

  • Jasper Knight

    (School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X3 WITS, Gauteng 2050, South Africa)

Abstract

Diesel fuel is known to emit pollutants that have a negative impact on environmental and human health. In developing countries like South Africa, attendants are employed to pump fuel for customers at service stations. Attendants refuel vehicles with various octane unleaded fuel, lead-replacement petrol and diesel fuel, on a daily basis. Attendants are at risk to adverse health effects associated with the inhalation of volatile organic compounds released from these fuels. The pollutants released include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX), which are significant due to their high level of toxicity. In this study, a risk assessment of BTEX was conducted at a diesel service station for public buses. Using Radiello passive samplers, it was found that benzene concentrations were above recommended international standards. Due to poor ventilation and high exposure duration, the average benzene concentration over the sampling campaign exceeded the US Environmental Protection Agency’s chronic inhalation exposure reference concentration. Lifetime cancer risk estimation showed that on average there is a 3.78 × 10 −4 cancer risk, corresponding to an average chronic daily intake of 1.38 × 10 −3 mg/kg/day of benzene exposure. Additionally, there were incidences where individuals were at potential hazard risk of benzene and toluene that may pose non-carcinogenic effects to employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Raeesa Moolla & Christopher J. Curtis & Jasper Knight, 2015. "Occupational Exposure of Diesel Station Workers to BTEX Compounds at a Bus Depot," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:4:p:4101-4115:d:48092
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lihui Huang & Jinhan Mo & Jan Sundell & Zhihua Fan & Yinping Zhang, 2013. "Health Risk Assessment of Inhalation Exposure to Formaldehyde and Benzene in Newly Remodeled Buildings, Beijing," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-8, November.
    2. Benjamin Edokpolo & Qiming Jimmy Yu & Des Connell, 2014. "Health Risk Assessment of Ambient Air Concentrations of Benzene, Toluene and Xylene (BTX) in Service Station Environments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-21, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sunisa Chaiklieng & Pornnapa Suggaravetsiri & Herman Autrup, 2019. "Risk Assessment on Benzene Exposure among Gasoline Station Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-9, July.
    2. Muhammad Mohsin & Hengbin Yin & Weilun Huang & Shijun Zhang & Luyao Zhang & Ana Mehak, 2022. "Evaluation of Occupational Health Risk Management and Performance in China: A Case Study of Gas Station Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-22, March.
    3. Chin-Yu Hsu & Yu-Ting Zeng & Yu-Cheng Chen & Mu-Jean Chen & Shih-Chun Candice Lung & Chih-Da Wu, 2020. "Kriging-Based Land-Use Regression Models That Use Machine Learning Algorithms to Estimate the Monthly BTEX Concentration," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-14, September.

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