Risk Assessment of Volatile Organic Compounds Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene (BTEX) in Consumer Products

Abstract

Exposure and risk assessment was performed by evaluating levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC) benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) in 207 consumer products. The products were categorized into 30 different items, consisting of products of different brands. Samples were analyzed for BTEX by headspace-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (headspace-GC/MS) with limit of detection (LOD) of 1 ppm. BTEX were detected in 59 consumer products from 18 item types. Benzene was detected in whiteout (ranging from not detected [ND] to 3170 ppm), glue (1486 ppm), oil-based ballpoint pens (47 ppm), and permanent (marking) pens (2 ppm). Toluene was detected in a leather cleaning product (6071 ppm), glue (5078 ppm), whiteout (1130 ppm), self-adhesive wallpaper (15-1012 ppm), shoe polish (806 ppm), permanent pen (609 ppm), wig adhesive (372 ppm), tapes (2-360 ppm), oil-based ballpoint pen (201 ppm), duplex wallpaper (12-52 ppm), shoes (27 ppm), and air freshener (13 ppm). High levels of ethylbenzene were detected in permanent pen (ND-345,065 ppm), shoe polish (ND-277,928 ppm), leather cleaner (42,223 ppm), whiteout (ND-2,770 ppm), and glue (ND-792 ppm). Xylene was detected in permanent pen (ND-285,132 ppm), shoe polish (ND-87,298 ppm), leather cleaner (12,266 ppm), glue (ND-3,124 ppm), and whiteout (ND-1,400 ppm). Exposure assessment showed that the exposure to ethylbenzene from permanent pens ranged from 0 to 3.11 mg/kg/d (men) and 0 to 3.75 mg/kg/d (women), while for xylene, the exposure ranges were 0-2.57 mg/kg/d and 0-3.1 mg/kg/d in men and women, respectively. The exposure of women to benzene from whiteout ranged from 0 to 0.00059 mg/kg/d. Hazard index (HI), defined as a ratio of exposure to reference dose (RfD), for ethylbenzene was 31.1 (3.11 mg/kg/d/0.1 mg/kg/d) and for xylene (2.57 mg/kg/d/0.2 mg/kg/d) was 12.85, exceeding 1 for both compounds. Cancer risk for benzene was calculated to be 3.2 × 10(-5) based on (0.00059 mg/kg/d × 0.055 mg/kg-d(-1), cancer potency factor), assuming that 100% of detected levels in some products such as permanent pens and whiteouts were exposed in a worst-case scenario. These data suggest that exposure to VOC via some consumer products exceeded the safe limits and needs to be reduced.

Characterization of air freshener emission: the potential health effects

“…Exposure to high concentrations of toluene can cause kidney damage (Cohr and Stokholm, 1979). The highest level of toluene detected in most air fresheners is 5.22 × 10 -6 mg/m 3 in air and this is a low concentration (Kumar et al, 2014;Lim et al, 2014).…”

“…With the exception of candles (contain 70 μg/m 3 ), toluene is found in some kinds of air fresheners and other products at low concentrations (Lim et al, 2014;Lee and Wang, 2004). Xylene can be found in liquid detergent and various types of air fresheners.…”

“…The cancer risk associated with benzene from air fresheners is too low owing to its low concentration in air fresheners. However, benzene exposure limits range from 0 to 5.1 × 10 -5 for women (Lim et al, 2014). Following long-term exposure, benzene can cause hematological effects in humans (WHO, 2014).…”

“…Following long-term exposure, benzene can cause hematological effects in humans (WHO, 2014). Benzene may induce a genotoxic chemical in vivo and in vitro, showing it to be carcinogenic (Sekine et al, 2011;Lim et al, 2014).…”

Real-time monitoring of respiratory absorption factors of volatile organic compounds in ambient air by proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry

“…Partly due to the difficulty in obtaining their respiratory AFs, toxic VOCs were still assumed to be totally absorbed in many studies on inhalation exposure health risk [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. Alternatively, a number of studies have instead assumed AFs of 90% for toxic VOCs [6,[21][22][23][24][69][70][71], and very recently a few studies proposed 50% or 60% as the AFs of toxic VOCs [72,73]. Therefore, authentic respiratory AFs are important parameters to be determined for accurate assessment of human health risks by inhalation exposure of toxic VOCs.…”