Assessment of liver and renal function tests among gasoline exposed gas station workers in Mekelle city, Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Volatile organic compounds such as gasoline and other fuels are associated with a wide variety of deleterious health effects including liver and kidney diseases. Gasoline station workers are exposed to a mixture of hydrocarbons during dispensing. However, no published studies investigated the liver and renal function tests of gasoline station workers in Ethiopia. Therefore the aim of this study was to assess liver and renal function tests among gasoline station workers. METHOD: A comparative cross sectional study was conduct from January 2018 to April 2018 at Mekelle city, Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia. Liver and renal function tests were analyzed on gasoline exposed (n = 43) and controls (n = 47) by Pentra C400 automated clinical chemistry analyzer. Student independent t-test and one way-ANOVA statistical methods were employed using SPSS Ver23. P-value < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. RESULT: The mean level of ALT, AST, Urea, creatinine, and uric acid was significantly higher among gasoline stations workers when compared to control study participants. There was also a significant increase in ALT, AST, Urea, creatinine and uric acid among gasoline stations with above 6 years exposure when compared with those exposed for ≤2 and3-6years. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that increasing liver and renal parameters may be associated with exposure to gasoline and it is dependent on time of exposure to gasoline.

The impact of subsidized low aromatic fuel (LAF) on petrol (gasoline) sniffing in remote Australian indigenous communities.

BACKGROUND: Since 2005, the Australian Government has subsidized the production and distribution of Low Aromatic Fuel (LAF) as a deterrent against petrol (gasoline) sniffing in remote Indigenous communities. LAF is used in place of unleaded petrol as a fuel for vehicles and other engines. This paper reports findings from an independent evaluation of the LAF rollout. METHODS: Forty one Indigenous communities were surveyed between 2010 and 2014, with each community being visited twice at a two yearly interval. Quantitative data on prevalence of petrol sniffing were collected, as well as qualitative data on the acceptability of LAF, evidence of substitution for inhaled petrol with other drugs, and programs such as recreational, training and employment opportunities. Prevalence rates of sniffing per 1000 population for each survey year and community were calculated by dividing the total number of sniffers by the population aged 5-39 years and multiplying by 1000. RESULTS: Between 2011-12 and 2013-14, the total estimated number of people sniffing petrol declined from 289 to 204, a fall of 29.4%. At both times, the median petrol sniffing prevalence rate was lower in communities with LAF than in communities without LAF. In 17 of the 41 communities, comparable data were available over a longer period, commencing in 2005-06. Fifteen of these communities stocked LAF over the entire period. In these communities, the median rate of petrol sniffing declined by 96%, from 141.6 per 1000 population in 2005-06 to 5.5 in 2013-14 (p < 0.05). LAF was widely accepted, although acceptance was often qualified by a belief that LAF harmed engines. Anecdotal reports suggest that the fall in petrol sniffing may have been offset by increased use of cannabis and other drugs, but the relationship is not one of simple cause-and-effect, with evidence that an increase in cannabis use in communities commenced before the LAF rollout began. Provision of services in communities has improved in recent years, but many programs continue to be inadequately resourced. CONCLUSIONS: The rollout of LAF appears to have contributed to reducing petrol sniffing and associated harms in Australian Indigenous communities.

Impacts and mitigation of excess diesel-related NOx emissions in 11 major vehicle markets.

Vehicle emissions contribute to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and tropospheric ozone air pollution, affecting human health, crop yields and climate worldwide. On-road diesel vehicles produce approximately 20 per cent of global anthropogenic emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are key PM2.5 and ozone precursors. Regulated NOx emission limits in leading markets have been progressively tightened, but current diesel vehicles emit far more NOx under real-world operating conditions than during laboratory certification testing. Here we show that across 11 markets, representing approximately 80 per cent of global diesel vehicle sales, nearly one-third of on-road heavy-duty diesel vehicle emissions and over half of on-road light-duty diesel vehicle emissions are in excess of certification limits. These excess emissions (totalling 4.6 million tons) are associated with about 38,000 PM2.5- and ozone-related premature deaths globally in 2015, including about 10 per cent of all ozone-related premature deaths in the 28 European Union member states. Heavy-duty vehicles are the dominant contributor to excess diesel NOx emissions and associated health impacts in almost all regions. Adopting and enforcing next-generation standards (more stringent than Euro 6/VI) could nearly eliminate real-world diesel-related NOx emissions in these markets, avoiding approximately 174,000 global PM2.5- and ozone-related premature deaths in 2040. Most of these benefits can be achieved by implementing Euro VI standards where they have not yet been adopted for heavy-duty vehicles.

On the road to recovery: Gasoline content regulations and child health.

Gasoline content regulations are designed to curb pollution and improve health, but their impact on health has not been quantified. By exploiting both the timing of regulation and spatial variation in children's exposure to highways, I estimate the effect of gasoline content regulation on pollution and child health. The introduction of cleaner-burning gasoline in California in 1996 reduced asthma admissions by 8% in high exposure areas. Reductions are greatest for areas downwind from highways and heavy traffic areas. Stringent gasoline content regulations can improve child health, and may diminish existing health disparities.

[Hygienic assessment of the impact of diesel fuel on the ordinary black soil microbiocenosis].

The main sources of soil contamination by oil products in the Dnepropetrovsk region are oil depots, gas stations and all types of transport that use and transport oil. The diesel fuel was found to be the one of the priority multicomponent components of the petroleum products, so it there was occurred the necessity for the hygienic regulation of the oil component in order to monitor a multicomponent composition ofpetroleum products in the study of complex influence of environmental factors on health population. In the study of the effect of various concentrations of diesel fuel on the number of total bacterial count (TBC) as the threshold for general sanitary indicator of hazard, there was recommended the concentration of4000 mg/kg, which oppressed the vital activity of soil microorganisms by 50-27.3% for the first 2 weeks of the laboratory experiment.

Gasoline risk management: a compendium of regulations, standards, and industry practices.

This paper is part of a special series of publications regarding gasoline toxicology testing and gasoline risk management; this article covers regulations, standards, and industry practices concerning gasoline risk management. Gasoline is one of the highest volume liquid fuel products produced globally. In the U.S., gasoline production in 2013 was the highest on record (API, 2013). Regulations such as those pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA) (Clean Air Act, 2012: § 7401, et seq.) and many others provide the U.S. federal government with extensive authority to regulate gasoline composition, manufacture, storage, transportation and distribution practices, worker and consumer exposure, product labeling, and emissions from engines and other sources designed to operate on this fuel. The entire gasoline lifecycle-from manufacture, through distribution, to end-use-is subject to detailed, complex, and overlapping regulatory schemes intended to protect human health, welfare, and the environment. In addition to these legal requirements, industry has implemented a broad array of voluntary standards and best management practices to ensure that risks from gasoline manufacturing, distribution, and use are minimized.

Health assessment of gasoline and fuel oxygenate vapors: generation and characterization of test materials.

In compliance with the Clean Air Act regulations for fuel and fuel additive registration, the petroleum industry, additive manufacturers, and oxygenate manufacturers have conducted comparative toxicology testing on evaporative emissions of gasoline alone and gasoline containing fuel oxygenates. To mimic real world exposures, a generation method was developed that produced test material similar in composition to the re-fueling vapor from an automotive fuel tank at near maximum in-use temperatures. Gasoline vapor was generated by a single-step distillation from a 1000-gallon glass-lined kettle wherein approximately 15-23% of the starting material was slowly vaporized, separated, condensed and recovered as test article. This fraction was termed vapor condensate (VC) and was prepared for each of the seven test materials, namely: baseline gasoline alone (BGVC), or gasoline plus an ether (G/MTBE, G/ETBE, G/TAME, or G/DIPE), or gasoline plus an alcohol (G/EtOH or G/TBA). The VC test articles were used for the inhalation toxicology studies described in the accompanying series of papers in this journal. These studies included evaluations of subchronic toxicity, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, genotoxicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity. Results of these studies will be used for comparative risk assessments of gasoline and gasoline/oxygenate blends by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Emissions of particulate-bound elements from biodiesel and ultra low sulfur diesel: size distribution and risk assessment.

Use of waste cooking oil derived biodiesel (WCOB) as an alternative fuel in diesel engines has increased significantly in recent years. The impact of WCOB on particulate emissions from diesel engines needs to be investigated thoroughly. This study was conducted to make a comparative evaluation and size-differentiated speciation of the particulate bound elements from ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) and WCOB and a blend of both of the fuels (B50). Particle mass and their elemental size distributions ranging from 0.01-5.6 µm were measured. It was observed that more ultrafine particles (UFPs, <100 nm) were emitted when the engine was fueled with WCOB. Fifteen particulate-bound elements such as K, Al, Mg, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Cd, Ni, As, Ba, Pb, Zn and Sr were investigated and reported in this study. Potential health risk associated with these particulate bound elements upon inhalation was also evaluated based on dose-response assessments for both adults and children. The findings indicate that the exposure to PM of the B100 exhaust is relatively more hazardous and may pose adverse health effects compared to that of ULSD. Also, investigations on human health risk due to exposure to UFPs indicate that UFPs contribute a major fraction (>70%) of the total estimated health risk.

Life cycle environmental impacts of selected U.S. ethanol production and use pathways in 2022.

Projected life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and net energy value (NEV) of high-ethanol blend fuel (E85) used to propel a passenger car in the United States are evaluated using attributional life cycle assessment. Input data represent national-average conditions projected to 2022 for ethanol produced from corn grain, corn stover, wheat straw, switchgrass, and forest residues. Three conversion technologies are assessed: advanced dry mill (corn grain), biochemical (switchgrass, corn stover, wheat straw), and thermochemical (forest residues). A reference case is compared against results from Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis. For this case, one kilometer traveled on E85 from the feedstock-to-ethanol pathways evaluated has 43%-57% lower GHG emissions than a car operated on conventional U.S. gasoline (base year 2005). Differences in NEV cluster by conversion technology rather than by feedstock. The reference case estimates of GHG and NEV skew to the tails of the estimated frequency distributions. Though not as optimistic as the reference case, the projected median GHG and NEV for all feedstock-to-E85 pathways evaluated offer significant improvement over conventional U.S. gasoline. Sensitivity analysis suggests that inputs to the feedstock production phase are the most influential parameters for GHG and NEV. Results from this study can be used to help focus research and development efforts.

Climate change and health costs of air emissions from biofuels and gasoline.

Environmental impacts of energy use can impose large costs on society. We quantify and monetize the life-cycle climate-change and health effects of greenhouse gas (GHG) and fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)) emissions from gasoline, corn ethanol, and cellulosic ethanol. For each billion ethanol-equivalent gallons of fuel produced and combusted in the US, the combined climate-change and health costs are $469 million for gasoline, $472-952 million for corn ethanol depending on biorefinery heat source (natural gas, corn stover, or coal) and technology, but only $123-208 million for cellulosic ethanol depending on feedstock (prairie biomass, Miscanthus, corn stover, or switchgrass). Moreover, a geographically explicit life-cycle analysis that tracks PM(2.5) emissions and exposure relative to U.S. population shows regional shifts in health costs dependent on fuel production systems. Because cellulosic ethanol can offer health benefits from PM(2.5) reduction that are of comparable importance to its climate-change benefits from GHG reduction, a shift from gasoline to cellulosic ethanol has greater advantages than previously recognized. These advantages are critically dependent on the source of land used to produce biomass for biofuels, on the magnitude of any indirect land use that may result, and on other as yet unmeasured environmental impacts of biofuels.

Lessons from the removal of lead from gasoline for controlling other environmental pollutants: a case study from New Zealand.

BACKGROUND: It took over two decades to achieve the removal of leaded gasoline in this country. This was despite international evidence and original research conducted in New Zealand on the harm to child cognitive function and behaviour from lead exposure. OBJECTIVE: To identify lessons from the New Zealand experience of removing leaded gasoline that are potentially relevant to the control of other environmental pollutants. DISCUSSION: From the available documentation, we suggest a number of reasons for the slow policy response to the leaded gasoline hazard. These include: (1) industry power in the form of successful lobbying by the lead additive supplier, Associated Octel; (2) the absence of the precautionary principle as part of risk management policy; and (3) weak policymaking machinery that included: (a) the poor use of health research evidence (from both NZ and internationally), as well as limited use of expertise in academic and non-governmental organisations; (b) lack of personnel competent in addressing technically complex issues; and (c) diffusion of responsibility among government agencies. CONCLUSION: There is a need for a stronger precautionary approach by policymakers when considering environmental pollutants. Politicians, officials and health workers need to strengthen policymaking processes and effectively counter the industry tactics used to delay regulatory responses.

Exposure assessment of diesel bus emissions.

The goal of this study was to measure ultrafine particle concentrations with diameters less than 1 mum emitted by diesel buses and to assess resulting human exposure levels. The study was conducted at the Woolloongabba Busway station in Brisbane, Australia in the winter months of 2002 during which temperature inversions frequently occurred. Most buses that utilize the station are fuelled by diesel, the exhaust of which contains a significant quantity of particle matter. Passengers waiting at the station are exposed to these particles emitted from the buses. During the course of this study, passenger census was conducted, based on video surveillance, yielding person-by-person waiting time data. Furthermore, a bus census revealed accurate information about the total number of diesel versus Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered buses. Background (outside of the bus station) and platform measurements of ultrafine particulate number size distributions were made to determine ambient aerosol concentrations. Particle number exposure concentration ranges from 10 and 40 to 60% of bus related exhaust fumes. This changes dramatically when considering the particle mass exposure concentration, where most passengers are exposed to about 50 to 80% of exhaust fumes. The obtained data can be very significant for comparison with similar work of this type because it is shown in previous studies that exhaust emissions causes cancer in laboratory animals. It was assumed that significant differences between platform and background distributions were due to bus emissions which, combined with passenger waiting times, yielded an estimate of passenger exposure to ultrafine particles from diesel buses. From an exposure point of view, the Busway station analyzed resembles a street canyon. Although the detected exhaust particle concentration at the outbound platform is found to be in the picogram range, exposure increases with the time passengers spend on the platform along with their breathing frequency.

Fuels for urban transit buses: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

Public transit agencies have begun to adopt alternative propulsion technologies to reduce urban transit bus emissions associated with conventional diesel (CD) engines. Among the most popular alternatives are emission controlled diesel buses (ECD), defined here to be buses with continuously regenerating diesel particle filters burning low-sulfur diesel fuel, and buses burning compressed natural gas (CNG). This study uses a series of simplifying assumptions to arrive at first-order estimates for the incremental cost-effectiveness (CE) of ECD and CNG relative to CD. The CE ratio numerator reflects acquisition and operating costs. The denominator reflects health losses (mortality and morbidity) due to primary particulate matter (PM), secondary PM, and ozone exposure, measured as quality adjusted life years (QALYs). We find that CNG provides larger health benefits than does ECD (nine vs six QALYs annually per 1000 buses) but that ECD is more cost-effective than CNG (dollar 270 000 per QALY for ECD vs dollar 1.7 million to dollar 2.4 million for CNG). These estimates are subject to much uncertainty. We identify assumptions that contribute most to this uncertainty and propose potential research directions to refine our estimates.

[Guidelines for assessment and management of risks caused by benzene for workers at gas stations]. / Linee guida per la valutazione e la gestione dei rischi da benzine per la salute dei lavoratori addetti alle stazioni di servizio carburanti.

The European regulations classify gasoline as "carcinogenic agent" because of its content of benzene (> 0.1%). Consequently the preventive and protective actions towards the petrol station attendants prescribe, before all, the elimination of the agent or the reduction of the exposure and the risk to the minimum. Well known are currently a series of preventive measures able to produce appreciable reduction of the risk: reduction of the benzene content of gasoline, vapor recovery systems, self-areas or do-it-yourself, specific procedures for working. Exposure assessment is an essential step in order to establish the need for further preventive measure and to verify their efficacy. The exposure levels to gasoline of the petrol station attendants can be influenced by a variety of factors other than benzene air concentrations and therefore biological monitoring can give some sensible advantage in respect to air monitoring. Dosage of benzene in expired air, in urine, or in blood give a very good estimation of the exposure to benzene but they are not test largely practicable today, because analytical, economical, organizational reasons. Recent studies suggest that the dosage in urine of trans,trans muconic acid (ttMA) or phenil mercapturic acid can be useful biomarkers of recent exposure, even at low levels of exposure such as in filling stations. Exposure conditions to gasoline vapors in filling stations are rapidly changing thanks to some technological innovations and legal restrictions and the exposure levels are much below the occupational air standards, Toxicological and epidemiological data (although not yet conclusive at low doses) suggest to carry out however health and epidemiological surveillance programs for the working population. A program for the health surveillance and biological monitoring is here proposed: a clinical examination, integrated with haematological tests and biological monitoring tests, must be carried out in pre-employment and subsequently repeated yearly in the highest exposure conditions. When the exposure levels should decrease the examinations could be carried out every two years.

Self-assessment of exposure--a pilot study of assessment of exposure to benzene in tank truck drivers.

Occupational hygienists or safety engineers perform exposure assessments, mostly with very little participation by the workers. The objective of our study is to involve the workers themselves in the assessment and measurement procedure, the self-assessment method (SAE). A pilot study has been carried out involving tank truck drivers at a company transporting gasoline. The drivers were supposed to decide themselves when, and how often, they wanted to measure benzene exposure by using diffusive samplers that were then sent by mail for analysis. After every measurement they received their own results in a personal document for interpretation. The company management also received a document, which summarized all the drivers' measurements. Expert measurements, with the same type of sampler, were also accomplished to evaluate the self-assessments. The geometric mean and the 95 percent confidence intervals of the measurements made by the drivers (29 measurements) was 0.17 (0.11-0.26), and by an occupational hygienist (8 measurements) 0.12 mg/m3 (0.04-0.37). The results show that the drivers technically can perform SAE. Interviews with the workers and the management indicated that some kind of organizational support within the company is needed to implement the method into the regular internal control of the working environment.

The kerosene tragedy of 1994, an unusual epidemic of burns: epidemiological aspects and management of patients.

An unusual and perhaps the first epidemic of burns occurred between 15 February 1994 and mid April 1994 in four districts of the State of Rajasthan in India. The cause of this epidemic was the accidental mixing of petrol in kerosene oil which was inadvertently overlooked. This mixture of kerosene and petrol was used mainly by people of low-income groups for lighting lamps. Most of the accidents occurred while pouring this highly inflammable petrol-kerosene mixture into ignited lamps. A total of 303 cases were reported: 118 of these patients sustained severe burns of whom 37 died. Small numbers of fresh cases kept occurring over a period of 2 months in spite of all efforts by the administration, because poor people kept using the fatal mixture due to ignorance and illiteracy. Most of the patients were managed at district hospitals with the help of plastic surgeons called for the purpose from Jaipur, the capital city of the affected State. A total of 40 out of 303 patients were transferred to SMS Hospital where a medical ward was vacated to manage these patients, as the 10-bed burn unit already had 300 per cent best occupancy. Most of these patients were not willing to be sent to a burn unit situated far away from their homes, but they had to be transferred because the general surgeons working at district hospitals were hesitant to manage them, not so much due to lack of training in the management of burns, but more due to lack of willingness to manage burns. This indicates the need for renewed emphasis not only of the necessity of training general surgeons, nursing and paramedical staff at district level in the management of burns, but also of the need to manage these cases at district level. This idea needs serious consideration and sincere efforts to implement it at the national level. The paper has been split into two parts: epidemiological aspects and management of patients.

Early health effects and biological monitoring in persons occupationally exposed to tetraethyl lead.

Dependent on the level of occupational exposure to tetraethyl lead, the occurrence of early signs of toxicity and the urinary excretion of triethyl lead, diethyl lead and total lead compounds were investigated. This was done in the following cohorts in the province of Hubei, China: 277 workers at gasoline depots exposed to gasoline, 36 traffic policemen exposed to automobile exhaust and 342 public office workers (virtually non-exposed controls). Mean external tetraethyl lead exposure concentrations were 84.8 micrograms/m3 (as Pb) for the gasoline depot workers, 5.2 micrograms/m3 for traffic police and 1.1 microgram/m3 for the controls. No significant subclinical indications of organic lead toxicity were found in the group of traffic policemen compared with the controls. In the cohort of gasoline workers, however, there was a statistical increase (vs controls) in the frequency of appearance of tremor and of sinus bradycardia. When the cohort of gasoline workers was divided into subgroups of different ranges of exposure, dose-dependence was noted. In general, the urinary excretion of triethyl lead was very low compared to that of diethyl lead, which appears to be a sensitive and specific indicator of exposure to tetraethyl lead; total lead excretion did not correlate well with actual external tetraethyl lead exposure. On the basis of these data it seems that current occupational exposure limits for tetraethyl lead are inadequate and need to be revised. In addition, a biological limit, based on urinary diethyl lead excretion, may be proposed.