Long-Term Exposure To Benzene Appears To Increase Risk Of Multiple Myeloma
A study in Italy found that long-term exposure to benzene and other industrial solvents may increase the risk of developing multiple myeloma. The highest risk for myeloma was found in patients with 15 or more years of benzene exposure.
Benzene, a known carcinogen, enters the body through the skin, lungs, or digestive tract. This industrial solvent is currently used in the manufacture of dyes, synthetic rubber, plastic, and drugs.
Researchers pooled data between 1991 and 1993 from 11 regions in Italy from all cases of blood and lymphatic cancers in people 20 to 74 years old. They also gathered information on healthy individuals in the same occupation. The study included 263 cases of multiple myeloma with 1,100 healthy controls and 586 cases of leukemia with 1,278 healthy controls.
Out of 43 patients who had long-term, medium-to-high exposure to benzene, 19 had multiple myeloma. Symptoms surfaced 10 to 19 years after the exposure. The risk of myeloma in people with benzene exposure was double the risk in cases where there was no benzene exposure.
Benzene was widely used in Italian shoemaking and printing industries in the 1950s and 1960s, until a proven association with acute myeloid leukemia led to a ban in manufacturing in 1963. Since then, benzene appears only in concentrations below 2 percent in solvent mixtures.
The entire article can be found in the November issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
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Re exposure to environmental pollutants. My husband (diagnosed with MM in 2008) was an anaesthesiologist in UK all his working life. Anaesthetic vapours are known to cause problems unless there is superb ventilation/extraction. Nurses avoind the OR when pregnant as it is known the chemicals can cause problems for the developing foetus. BUT - I wonder if anyone has found evidence of a link between MM and/or other blood cancers and exposure to OR chemicals?
Dear Frances: Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, studies of this nature on anesthesiology and related professions do not consistently correlate working in the OR to any particular disease or condition. To answer your question, there simply is not enough data on the population that is exposed to these chemicals.
In your husband's case, it may be interesting to look into his specific working environment. A study from 1992 showed that workers in ORs that are cleaned, or "scavenged," more than twenty times an hour had three times fewer instances of neuropsychological morbidity (tingling, numbness, cramps, and tiredness) than ORs that were cleaned 11 to 20 times an hour. Please see our November article for more information on occupational exposure and multiple myeloma.
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