CDC NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards: Benzene

02/08/2006.

What’s Burning in Your Campfire? Garbage in, toxins out.

This article reports the chemical results of various campfire burn scenarios. For a campfire that was burning just wood and no garbage, the report found the following:

“Smoke—Many hazardous air pollutants and toxic metals are known to be human carcinogens that may increase the incidence of cancer. Air pollutants may have other effects on human health that are more difficult to measure, such as immunological, neurological, reproductive, developmental, mutagenic, or respiratory effects.

The hazardous air pollutants we measured in campfire smoke that are known to adversely affect human health were: acrolein (2-propenal), acetaldehyde, benzene, furan, naphthalene, styrene, toluene, and xylene. We did not analyze the smoke for toxic metals.

Benzene, naphthalene, styrene, toluene, and xylene are aromatic hydrocarbons, which are suspected carcinogens. Aromatic hydrocarbons also are severe eye, nose, and throat irritants. These compounds occur in petroleum products and automobile exhaust. They also are found in dyes and are used to produce a number of organic compounds. Benzene is a major component in tobacco smoke. Naphthalene is an ingredient in mothballs. Toluene and xylene occur in petroleum products and in dyes. Styrene is primarily used in the production of polystyrene plastics and resins.

Acrolein and acetaldehyde are aldehydes. Aldehydes are used for making dyes, resins, and plastics. Acrolein is toxic to aquatic organisms and acetaldehyde has been proven to cause cancer in animals. Studies have not proven whether these compounds cause cancer in humans.

Furan is on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s list of extremely hazardous substances. Furan is released into the air during incomplete combustion. It emits acrid smoke and irritating fumes.”

From: National Cancer Institute

Factsheet: Formaldehyde

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/formaldehyde

Benzene

http://www.cancer.gov/dictionary?cdrid=270734#top

From: National Institute of Environmental Health Science

Dioxins

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/dioxins/index.cfm

From: Cancer Research UK

This website contains a section that discusses some of the cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Some of these, including Formaldeyde, Benzene, Acrolein, and PAHs, are also found in wood smoke.

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/smokingandtobacco/whatsinacigarette/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18272205

Sci Total Environ. 2008 Apr 15;393(2-3):283-90. Epub 2008 Feb 12.

Influence of residential wood combustion on local air quality.

Hellén H, Hakola H, Haaparanta S, Pietarila H, Kauhaniemi M.

Open access submitted manuscript version of Journal of Chromatography A 710 (1995) 71-77 doi:10.1016/0021-9673(95)00002-5

Assessment by GC and GC-MS of volatile hydrocarbons from biomass burning

Gunnar Barrefors and Göran Petersson

In their abstract to this article, the authors state, “The hydrocarbon proportions were found to be remarkably similar for different kinds of biomass. Among 21 recorded alkenes and alkadienes, ethene was predominant, and the next most prominent species were propene and 1,3-butadiene. The large proportions of ethyne and the carcinogenic benzene increased further with increasing combustion efficiency.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17127644

Inhal Toxicol. 2007 Jan;19(1):67-106.

Woodsmoke health effects: a review.

Naeher LP, Brauer M, Lipsett M, Zelikoff JT, Simpson CD, Koenig JQ, Smith KR.

Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.

In their abstract, the authors discuss the known harmful health effects of woodsmoke: “The sentiment that woodsmoke, being a natural substance, must be benign to humans is still sometimes heard. It is now well established, however, that wood-burning stoves and fireplaces as well as wildland and agricultural fires emit significant quantities of known health-damaging pollutants, including several carcinogenic compounds. Two of the principal gaseous pollutants in woodsmoke, CO and NOx, add to the atmospheric levels of these regulated gases emitted by other combustion sources. Health impacts of exposures to these gases and some of the other woodsmoke constituents (e.g., benzene) are well characterized in thousands of publications. As these gases are indistinguishable no matter where they come from, there is no urgent need to examine their particular health implications in woodsmoke.”

The authors then discuss the two main questions that they cover in their paper: “With this as the backdrop, this review approaches the issue of why woodsmoke may be a special case requiring separate health evaluation through two questions. The first question we address is whether woodsmoke should be regulated and/or managed separately, even though some of its separate constituents are already regulated in many jurisdictions. The second question we address is whether woodsmoke particles pose different levels of risk than other ambient particles of similar size.”

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/benzene/

Benzene is an aromatic hydrocarbon that is produced by the burning of natural products. It is a component of products derived from coal and petroleum and is found in gasoline and other fuels. Benzene is used in the manufacture of plastics, detergents, pesticides, and other chemicals. Research has shown benzene to be a carcinogen (cancer-causing). With exposures from less than five years to more than 30 years, individuals have developed, and died from, leukemia. Long-term exposure may affect bone marrow and blood production. Short-term exposure to high levels of benzene can cause drowsiness, dizziness, unconsciousness, and death.