Benzene is a well-known hazardous chemical that is used in petroleum-based processes to create plastics, lubricants, rubbers, dyes, explosives, detergents, pharmaceuticals, and many other products. It’s commonly found in the air as a pollutant produced from burning coal and oil, and gasoline products. It is also a building block for other hazardous chemicals such as dioxins, meaning, you need this toxic chemical to make more stable, but still hazardous, chemicals.

Benzene impacts you both in the short-term and in the long-term. For acute exposures, people can experience drowsiness, headaches, and irritation of the respiratory system, their eyes, or their skin. In severe cases of accidental inhalation of benzene, people can become overwhelmed and go unconscious or even die (EPA; CDC). For chronic exposures, specific organs can be targeted and harmed or various disorders in the blood can occur, including reduced numbers of red blood cells and aplastic anemia. Some women who inhaled high levels of benzene over several months reported irregular menstrual cycles, and rubber manufacturing workers who were exposed on the job had an increased incidence of leukemia.

The Partnership for Healthy Playing Surfaces  and the Mount Sinai Institute for Climate Change, Environmental Health and Exposomics both list benzene from artificial turf playing fields made of crumb rubber as a risk due to benzene exposure.  

Resources:

• EPA has issued a national emissions standard for benzene waste operations with its most recent amendments in 2003.
• OSHA: 
  • Overview Page
  • Hazardous Substances: Benzene (1910.1028)
• CDC Facts About Benzene
• NIOSH: Benzene Overview