Urinary and air biomonitoring of occupational exposure to benzene in oil pit workers

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the personal exposure to benzene and its relationship with biomonitoring and quantitative risk assessment among the personnel working and living near oil pits. This study was conducted in one of oil subsidiary companies in Kharg in 2017. Airborne benzene exposure was evaluated over 8-h periods during work-shift by using personal active samplers. Urinary O-Cresol levels were determined using GC-FID for separation and detection. The highest mean concentration of airborne benzene was at monitoring location, A (0.53 ppm), monitoring location H (0.59 ppm) in the spring, monitoring location M (0.72 ppm) and monitoring location P (0.8 ppm) in the summer, which was more than suggested by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. No direct linear relationship was found between the concentration of airborne benzene, age, work experience, urinary creatinine, and O-Cresol in this study (p > .05). No significant difference was observed between urinary O-Cresol and benzene in occupational groups and different seasons (p > .05). The highest mean quantitative risk of cancers was observed in summer (1.21 +/- 0.47). According to the results of this study, urinary biomarker O-Cresol is not a suitable measure for evaluating exposure to environmental benzene.