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Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#101

Post by bob_theslob646 »

hammock wrote: post #40
ben7799 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Benzene is in sunscreen... at least some of the spray stuff. Apparently it doesn't get on your skin but it's important to apply it in a well ventilated area to make sure you don't breathe any of it.

Benzene is in most personal care products in at least trace amounts https://s7d1.scene7.com/is/image/CENODS/10001-feature2-benze...

May please provide another source rather than an image with the cutout of a house and showing the parts per million of benzene versus the actual personal care products you were talking about that contain benzene?

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#102

Post by MisterTea »

permo-w wrote: post #86
hammock wrote: post #3

Benzene is everywhere, particularly in trace amounts in otherwise harmless products. Benzene is a building block for the production of many chemicals, including plastics, synthetic fibers, rubber, resins, dyes and pharmaceuticals, and residual amounts may remain in the final products. Benzene is used as a solvent and cleaning agent in printing, paint manufacturing, electronics, etc. Benzene contributes to the overall…

perhaps as a society we need to stop dismissing things containing plastics, synthetic fibres, rubber, resins, dyes and pharmaceuticals as otherwise harmless. I personally strongly avoid sleeping on or wearing anything containing synthetic fibres unless absolutely necessary. dyes I'm less cautious about, as short of dressing like a hippy they're almost impossible to avoid. it would be worse if I was a woman I'm sure,…

> it would be worse if I was a woman I'm sure, god knows what nonsense cosmetics contain

They can always not apply them.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#103

Post by xxpor »

permo-w wrote: post #86
hammock wrote: post #3

Benzene is everywhere, particularly in trace amounts in otherwise harmless products. Benzene is a building block for the production of many chemicals, including plastics, synthetic fibers, rubber, resins, dyes and pharmaceuticals, and residual amounts may remain in the final products. Benzene is used as a solvent and cleaning agent in printing, paint manufacturing, electronics, etc. Benzene contributes to the overall…

perhaps as a society we need to stop dismissing things containing plastics, synthetic fibres, rubber, resins, dyes and pharmaceuticals as otherwise harmless. I personally strongly avoid sleeping on or wearing anything containing synthetic fibres unless absolutely necessary. dyes I'm less cautious about, as short of dressing like a hippy they're almost impossible to avoid. it would be worse if I was a woman I'm sure,…

Why are you confident cotton isn't carcinogenic?

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#105

Post by asdff »

zinclozenge wrote: post #60

When I was taking organic chemistry my (mid-to-late 60s at the time in ~20010) teacher told us an anecdote about benzene when we started learning about aromatic molecules. She told us that they used to clean their lab bench with benzene solvent to make it sparkling clean. Of course, she also told us it was carcinogenic and then finished by saying a lot of her contemporary colleagues that went into organic chemistry r…

Old books with chemical information would often have things like odor or taste written down for a lot of surprising things.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#106

Post by tormeh »

asdff wrote: post #105
zinclozenge wrote: post #60

When I was taking organic chemistry my (mid-to-late 60s at the time in ~20010) teacher told us an anecdote about benzene when we started learning about aromatic molecules. She told us that they used to clean their lab bench with benzene solvent to make it sparkling clean. Of course, she also told us it was carcinogenic and then finished by saying a lot of her contemporary colleagues that went into organic chemistry r…

Old books with chemical information would often have things like odor or taste written down for a lot of surprising things.

Chemistry used to be a scientific spin on the Jackass franchise. Although to be fair often it was the assistants doing the taste tests - not the chief chemist at the lab.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#107

Post by InSteady »

hammock wrote: post #40
ben7799 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Benzene is in sunscreen... at least some of the spray stuff. Apparently it doesn't get on your skin but it's important to apply it in a well ventilated area to make sure you don't breathe any of it.

Benzene is in most personal care products in at least trace amounts https://s7d1.scene7.com/is/image/CENODS/10001-feature2-benze...

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, it is a big enough concern to recommend safety equipment in exposure at or above 0.1 ppm. So most of the activities / sources on that diagram don't warrant too much concern, other than cigarette smoking and fresh pain fumes.

Although benzene exposure from cosmetics probably depends highly on what you are using. As per another reply here, those spray on sunscreens are are pretty terrible (likely due to using butane, propane, etc as propellants). Exposure can get as high as 6 ppm in some cases.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#108

Post by pengaru »

MatmaRex wrote: post #75
pengaru wrote: post #55

Back in the late 80s/early 90s my elderly Italian-speaking grandfather lived with us in the states. Whenever he'd watch driving my gas RC car, if the thing would die he'd motion with his thumb down (like a pouring spout) while saying "benzene?". I don't know if it's an Italian language thing, his dialect, or just his knowledge of engines, but RC car fuel was "benzene". Makes me wonder what kind of benzene exposure he…

That’s the word for “gasoline” in Italian and a number of other languages. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#/languages

I believe you, (and google translate agrees). But I just never heard it spoken outside those specific circumstances from him. Despite having Italian immigrant parents who spoke a lot of Italian around me. I can't remember but suspect they said gasolina, not benzina.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#109

Post by InSteady »

refurb wrote: post #49
hammock wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The study in question literally says a small dose is about as effective as a massive dose.

That's because it's a terribly designed study. Their lowest dose shows maximum effect, they should have also tested 0.1 mg/kg. And 1mg/kg of body weight is way more than any person would be exposed to unless you like drinking gasoline.

If you read carefully through the study, the lowest dose does not show anything close to maximum effect in several of the most interesting metrics they were testing (shrinking of white adipose tissue cells, serum levels of leptin indicating endocrine dysfunction). Basically they tested a ton of stuff, and actually selected a pretty good range to get a decent picture. If they wanted to zoom on on one of these, then maybe you are right they should have started at 0.1mg/kg... unless they were zooming on on say decrease in serum levels of leptins in response to benzene exposure, because no significant decrease would be found.

Also, they are obviously interested in lifetime exposure, but the expense of exposing rats to tiny amounts over the course of years is not financially/logistically feasible, unless someone is dumping obscene amounts of money into this specific avenue of research. Instead, they go with much higher doses in 24 exposures over a 4 week period.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#110

Post by Robotbeat »

wil421 wrote: post #100
jabl wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To nitpick, at least in the EU regulations limit the benzene content in gasoline to a maximum of 1%. I had a vague recollection the limit was actually slightly stricter in the USA at 0.6%, but maybe my memory fails me.

It’s 0.62% or less for gas.[1] [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7918986/#:~:tex... .

No, 0.62% is the average: Benzene content in gasoline is federally regulated, with any refineries or importers required to average less than or equal to 0.62% benzene by volume.”

The very next sentence in your link mentions it can have up to 2%, as I mentioned: “Generally, gasoline in the United States is likely to contain 0.5%–2.0% benzene by volume [14,15].”

18% of gasoline’s weight is the BTEX aromatics, benzene, toluene, ethylene-benzene, and xylene. https://www.fuelfreedom.org/is-there-a-better-gasoline-addit....

This may be done depending on the season to increase the octane of gasoline.

An average of 18% of these aromatics is not what I’d call just trace amounts…

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