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Importance of Benzene in Nature

Benzene is a colorless liquid that can catch fire easily. It is toxic in nature and has a sickly odor. Benzene dissolves in water and can easily mix with ether, chloroform, alcohol, carbon disulfide and tetrachloride, acetone, and oils. Benzene crops up in nature through emissions of volcanoes or forest fires.

  1. Sources

    • Since benzene is a natural component of crude oil, it is present in the emissions of gasoline through the exhausts of automobile vehicles. Benzene emissions occur in the vicinity of petroleum refining plants, exploration of natural gas, and through some other services connected with electrical energy. As much as 85 percent of benzene sources are from the petroleum industry while the remaining 15 percent are from motor vehicle and other emissions. Smoke from tobacco also contains benzene in small concentrations. It can also found when you burn agricultural waste, forest waste, and wildfires.

    Uses

    • Benzene is an important raw material in the manufacturing of therapeutic chemicals, dyes, shoes, explosives, detergents, linoleum, and artificial leather. It helps to dissolve fats, waxes, paints, resins, and inks to dry them fast. It is an important element in production of phenol, styrene, and rubber.

    Benzene in Nature

    • The atmosphere gets contaminated from the toxic property of benzene through smoke from tobacco, cooking, and heating systems, apart from automobile exhaust. Benzene is considered a health hazard to human beings. As many as 85 percent of the cases were found to be due to benzene-contaminated material that has been in one form or the other taken into the human system.

    Effects of Benzene on Human Health

    • In humans benzene contamination occurs through inhaling the gas present in the air through emissions or through drinking water that has been polluted by benzene. Although cancer is the biggest risk, inhalation of benzene for a brief period of time can bring about depression of the nervous system. According to a report published by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety on benzene, “Short-term exposure causes depression of the central nervous system (CNS), marked by drowsiness, dizziness, headache, nausea, loss of coordination, confusion, and unconsciousness”. Its vapors can irritate your eyes and respirator organs. If your work involves continuous inhalation of benzene, you might experience a reduction of platelets and leukocytes in your body, resulting in some conditions of anemia or even leukemia.

    Risks and Fallacies

    • Considering the health hazards, The National Toxicology Program (NTP) has concluded benzene as a group-I human carcinogen. States like California use the factor of inhalation potency to declare it as a carcinogen. But isolated reading on the importance of benzene in nature can give laymen a shock, since it is branded as a human carcinogen, but the fact is that if humans get exposed throughout their lives to 1 microgram per cubic meter of benzene, the risk is not more than twenty-nine in a million. Thus, its potency to kill should be properly understood.

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