Year | History of Benzene Toxicity:
Aplastic Anemia and Leukemia |
1897 | Santeson - aplastic anemia; established benzene as powerful bone marrow poison |
1903 | LeNoir - leukemia in benzene workers |
1911 | Setting - benzene a bone marrow poison in rabbit bioassays |
1926 | National Safety Council on Benzene |
| Damages blood forming organsMarked individual variations in susceptibility |
1928 | Askey - 1st report of leukemia following benzene poisoning in humans |
1931 | National Safety Council on "Benzol" |
| Great individual susceptibility |
1938 | API - Toxicity of Industrial Organic Solvents |
1939 | Greenberg - reported leukemias in several hundred benzene workers in the rotogravure printing industry |
1939 | Hunter* and Mallory found 89 cases of benzene poisoning with several leukemia deaths. |
1940 | U.S. Public Health Service. Toxicity and potential dangers of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. |
| Prolonged benzene poisoning may become acute poisoning |
1941 | API. Occupations, Tumors, and Allied Disease. "Evidence shows causative interrelations between occupational exposure to benzol and leukemia." |
*Hunter: "No level of benzene greater than zero is safe over a long period of time." |
Year | Oil Company Findings (Same as Researchers) |
1942 | Shell Development Co. on Benzene, Nitrobenzene, Aniline and Xylidine. |
| "Benzene is considered toxic to humans in concentrations of 1:10,000." |
1948 | Drinker, P. API Toxicology Reviews: Benzene. 9 /1948. |
| "The only absolutely safe concentration for benzene is zero." |
1958 | ESSO. Toxigram – Benzene. Esso Research & Engineering Company - Medical Research Division, Linden, NJ. |
| The hazard from benzene exposure is an insidious destructive effect of blood forming organs.Most authorities agree that the only level which can be considered safe is zero. |
Year | Benzene Findings around the World |
1960's | Leukemias among workers (mainly shoemakers) heavily exposed to benzene in Italy |
1970's | Leukemias among workers (mainly shoemakers) heavily exposed to benzene in Turkey |
1984 | California Air Resources Board Report to the Scientific Review Panel on Benzene. |
| "Benzene should be treated as a carcinogen at all levels without threshold level . . ." |
1994 | Aksoy on benzene-exposed workers in Turkey: |
| "Benzene is the only chemical that causes hematological and lymphopoietic malignancies. There is no safe level for this carcinogen. Therefore, benzene should be used only when there is no other possibility." |
In 1939, Francis Hunter found that poisoning by benzene is a product of the following factors:
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