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Assessment of BTEX exposure and carcinogenic risks for mail carriers in Tehran, Iran

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Abstract

This study investigated personal exposure of mail carriers to atmospheric benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) and estimated their carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks due to their exposure to these compounds. A total of 36 mail carriers and 24 post office employees as the control group working in Tehran were included in this study. Spot urine samples were also collected before and after shifts. Monte Carlo simulations were used to estimate the distributions of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks from BTEX exposures. Mail carriers were exposed to 10.4 (± 6.2), 35.3 (± 15.5), 5.5 (± 2.3), and 23.1 (± 10.4) μg/m3 as the average (±SD) concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes, respectively. The urinary concentrations of these compounds were 124.0 (±61.2), 242.5 (±96.9), 140.7 (±74.2), and 444.3 (±147.0) ng/L, respectively. These values were significantly higher than those observed for control group. For mail carriers, after-shift urinary concentrations of BTEX were statistically higher than before-shifts concentrations. Carcinogenic risks of mail carriers were higher than those for control group with a mean of 5.82×10−6 exceeding the US EPA limits. Sensitivity analyses showed that concentration had the highest effect on the estimated risks, followed by exposure frequency and exposure time. This study showed that mail carriers are exposed to BTEX at levels that increase their risk to develop cancer. Therefore, programs to reduce the cancer risk among mail carriers should be designed to reduce exposures, possibly by changing shift hours, working days per year, and total years of occupation.

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Data will be available upon the reasonable request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (grant number # 15287).

Code availability

Not applicable.

Funding

This study was funded by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (grant number #15287). This study was ethically approved by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (IR.SBMU.PHNS.REC.1397.013).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

    Afshin Ghaderpoury

  2. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mostafa Hadei

  3. Students’ Scientific Research Center (SSRC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mostafa Hadei

  4. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA

    Philip K. Hopke

  5. Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, USA

    Philip K. Hopke

  6. Center for Air pollution Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Noushin Rastkari

  7. Research Center for Environmental Health Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Majid Kermani

  8. Environmental and Occupational Hazards Control Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Abbas Shahsavani

  9. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Abbas Shahsavani

Authors
  1. Afshin Ghaderpoury
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  2. Mostafa Hadei
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  3. Philip K. Hopke
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  4. Noushin Rastkari
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  5. Majid Kermani
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  6. Abbas Shahsavani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abbas Shahsavani.

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Ethics approval

This study was ethically approved by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

Consent to participate

All the participants signed a written consent before participating in this study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 4 Characteristics of mail carriers and control group
Full size table
Table 5 Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for airborne BTEX analyses
Full size table
Table 6 Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for urinary BTEX analyses
Full size table

Health risk assessment

The daily intake is calculated from the following equation:

$$ I=\frac{C\times CF\times IR\times EF\times ED}{BW\times AT} $$
(3)

where C, CF, IR, EF, ED, BW, and AT are the concentration of compound (μg/m3), the conversion factor (mg/μg), inhalation rate (m3/day), exposure frequency (days/year), exposure duration (years), body weight (kg), and averaging time (days), respectively.

Sample size sufficiency

Sufficiency of sample sizes was checked using the following equation.

k=n2/n1=0.66

$$ {n}_1=\frac{\left({\sigma}_1^2+{\sigma}_2^2/2\right){\left({z}_{1-\frac{\alpha }{2}}+{z}_{1-\beta}\right)}^2}{\varDelta^2} $$
Δ = |μ2-μ1|:

absolute difference between two means

σ1, σ2:

variance of mean #1 and #2

n1:

sample size for group #1

n2:

sample size for group #2

α :

probability of type I error (usually 0.05)

β :

probability of type II error (usually 0.2)

z :

critical Z value for a given α or β

k :

ratio of sample size for group #2 to group #1

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Ghaderpoury, A., Hadei, M., Hopke, P.K. et al. Assessment of BTEX exposure and carcinogenic risks for mail carriers in Tehran, Iran. Air Qual Atmos Health 14, 1365–1373 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-021-01027-5

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