What you may not know about the petrol in your car!

Yaay! I caught your attention. Now that you are here, I really do have something to tell you about Benzene, which is a major component of petrol, which is in your car. I didn’t lie. It causes Leukemia (cancer of the blood) at low levels.

                                                               Image result for benzene in petrol

Just a recap, I am currently a student at Texas A&M University getting a master’s degree in Public Health with a concentration in environmental and occupational health. So, one day in class, the Professor casually told us that to reduce our exposure to benzene, when we go to fill up our fuel tanks at the gas station, we should go uphill to prevent inhalation of the gas (petrol) fumes. Then I laughed!

I laughed because, in Nigeria, we have attendants standing at those pumps for hours, serving gas! But nothing was funny. I cannot imagine how much benzene they are inhaling. The limit to not exceed is 1 part per million (1ppm) for 8 hours a day (see 1ppm as 1 second in 12 days). The limit is really that low. Do you see my worry? Anything above 1 second in 12 days is likely to cause cancer! Other sources of benzene exposure include smoking (I’ll talk more about this on another post), industries, paint, glue, and many other petroleum products.


For now, if anyone is looking for a PhD topic in areas like toxicity or occupational & environmental health, please look into those attendants to check how much damage has been done. And if you know anyone who owns a gas station or who influential in the government, please ask him or her to look into providing respirators for such workers (not surgical masks). I understand that the situation of the country is not so good but it would be nice for everyone to live to see the better days when they come and they will.

Image result for benzene respirator
Respirator
                                            

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