Benzene

What is Benzene? Benzene is one of the top 20 most produced chemicals in the United States, used primarily in the production of plastics and chemical products. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a permissible exposure limit of 1 part of benzene per million parts of air (1 ppm) in the workplace during an 8 hour workday, 40 hour work week. Breathing high levels of benzene can result in death, while low levels can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches, tremors, confusion, and unconsciousness. Benzene is an important commercial commodity that, because of its frequent use, has become widespread in the environment of developed countries. Long term exposure to high levels of benzene in the air can cause leukemia, a potentially fatal cancer of the blood forming organs.