Benzene and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Abstract

Incidence rates for non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) have been rising throughout the world for several decades, and no convincing explanation exists for the majority of this increase. The commonest subtypes of NHL have no well‐defined aetiological factors but lymphoma development has been linked with exposure to a variety of chemicals, including nitrates, pesticides, herbicides, and solvents. Benzene, a solvent and important constituent of petrochemical products, is a potent lymphomagen in experimental animals and high‐dose exposure in humans is associated with both acute myeloid leukaemia and NHL. Much current interest centres on the possibility that environmental benzene exposure in the general public may underlie a proportion of the increase in NHL. Seventy per cent of benzene exposure in the environment is derived from vehicle exhaust emissions, whose increase has closely paralleled the rise in frequency of the disease. Mathematical modelling has been used to calculate an acceptable concentration of benzene in air based on risk estimates derived from industrial exposure, but the recommended target concentration in the U.K. of 1 ppb is regularly exceeded in urban locations. Detailed investigation of the health effects of low‐level benzene exposure awaits an accurate assay for quantifying long‐term human exposure. The 32P post‐labelling technique for the detection of toxin‐specific DNA adducts is extremely sensitive and has been applied in the biomonitoring of exposure to a number of carcinogens, but benzene–DNA adducts have to date proved elusive of detection. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Occupation and malignant lymphoma: a population based case control study in Germany

“…Having worked more than 10 years as a transport equipment operator was significantly Table 1 Odds ratios and 95% confidence limits for economic/industrial sectors in relation to lymphomas (n = 710 matched pairs; only sectors with at least five exposed cases are presented) associated with follicular lymphoma (ISCO 98). According to the latency analysis, sales workers (ISCO [41][42][43][44][45] showed-in addition to the increased follicular lymphoma risk-a significantly increased CLL and marginal zone B cell lymphoma risk. Having worked more than 10 years as an agriculture and animal husbandry worker (ISCO 62) was associated with diffuse large B cell lymphoma.…”

“…The mentioned increased risks are concordant with several previous studies which pointed to a potential relation between solvent exposure and lymphoma. [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] Due to small sample sizes, we could not conclusively determine whether the found increased risks are confined to specific target subentities. Some particularly strongly increased odds ratios indicate that such specific targets might exist (for example, multiple myeloma in the pulp paper, paper products, publishing and printing sector), but they might not necessarily be caused by solvents.…”

Benzene‐Free Synthesis of Adipic Acid

“…In 1991, adipic acid manufacture was estimated to account for 10% of the annual increase in atmospheric N 2 O levels (4). Benzene is a volatile carcinogen (5) linked to acute myeloid leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (6). Finally, the current source of benzene is the BTX fraction of petroleum (2,7), a nonrenewable fossil fuel whose price and availability is increasingly subject to cartel politics and global terrorism.…”

The cytotoxicity of jet fuel aromatic hydrocarbons and dose-related interleukin-8 release from human epidermal keratinocytes

“…Many aromatic hydrocarbons are known carcinogens (Brandt et al 1999;Broddle et al 1996;Freeman et al 1993;Tolbert 1997) with the ability to cause DNA damage (Ingram et al 2000;Rogers et al 2001), immunotoxicity (Harris et al 1997), neurotoxicity (Ritchie et al 2001) and hematopoietosis (Abraham 1996;Hood and Ottley 1985;O'Connor et al 1999). They comprise approximately 18% of the hydrocarbons in jet fuels, second to the aliphatic hydrocarbons (81%) (Committee on Toxicology 1996).…”