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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1498114
This article is part of the Research Topic Unraveling the Health Impacts of Toxic Exposures View all articles

The characteristics of chronic benzene poisoning in a Chinese occupational population

Provisionally accepted
Lian Gou Lian Gou 1,2Xingyu Ma Xingyu Ma 2Lili Huang Lili Huang 2,3Mei Qiu Mei Qiu 2Ruiqing Guo Ruiqing Guo 1Jun Jia Jun Jia 4Peiyu Xu Peiyu Xu 2Nan Lian Nan Lian 5*
  • 1 Sichuan Mental Health Center, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 2 Department of Nutrition, Food Hygiene and Toxicology, West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 3 Health Promotion Department, Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital,, Chongqing, China
  • 4 Department of Animal Experiment, Sichuan Kelun Drug Research Institute Co., Ltd, Chengdu, China
  • 5 Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Benzene is a widespread environmental carcinogen known to induce leukemia. Chronic benzene poisoning is a significant occupational health issue in China, particularly among workers exposed to benzene. The aim of this study was to analyze the distribution patterns and trends of occupational benzene poisoning cases. This study included 176 cases who are diagnosed with occupational chronic benzene poisoning, via the Occupational Disease Direct Network Reporting System of the Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention from 2005 to 2019. Data on gender, date of birth, years of benzene exposure, enterprise size, ownership type, industry were collected and descriptively analyzed. No significant differences were observed between males and females in terms of age or benzene exposure duration. The variation in gender distribution across 4 periods highlighted significant differences (χ2 = 13.06, P = 0.004). Linear regression analysis indicated that the number of workers increased with year as the independent variable (r2 = 0.40, P = 0.016). The working duration of benzene exposure appeared to decline, but this trend was not statistically significant. The majority of employees were in medium and largesized enterprises. Before 2016, workers were mainly in joint-stock enterprises and equipment manufacturing industries; however, from 2017 to 2019, benzene poisoning cases were increasingly found in private and light industries. Overall, this study may provide data resources for risk assessment among occupational benzene-exposed workers; therefore, the monitoring of benzene concentrations in the workplace should be strengthened, and targeted preventive measures for workers must be effectively implemented to protect their health.

    Keywords: Benzene poisoning, Occupational Health, exposure assessment, distribution, trend

    Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gou, Ma, Huang, Qiu, Guo, Jia, Xu and Lian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nan Lian, Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

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