title: Occupational exposure levels to benzene in Italy: findings from a national database.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Benzene is classified as human carcinogen and the association with lymphohaematopoietic cancer has been observed in many occupational epidemiological studies. The aim of this study is to summarize data about occupational exposure levels to benzene in Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Airborne concentrations of benzene were selected from the Italian database on occupational exposure to carcinogens in the period 1996-2007. Descriptive statistics were calculated for exposure-related variables. The number of workers potentially exposed was estimated for the industrial sectors better characterized in the database. An analysis through linear mixed model was performed to determine factors affecting the exposure level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total number of benzene exposure measurements was 15,776, with an overall arithmetic mean of 0.09 ppm and a geometric mean of 0.02 ppm. Economic sectors with a higher number of measurements (N) were the manufacturing of chemicals (N = 10,480) and the petrochemical industry (N = 2,652). The number of workers potentially exposed in the selected sectors was 37,137, and the most predictive independent variables of the exposure level were measurement year and job category.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Occupational benzene exposure is still widespread in many different industries, and proactive measures are needed to reduce its impact on the workers' health. The potential of occupational exposure databases as a source of data for exposure assessment is confirmed.
authors.affiliation: ISPESL Area, Occupational Medicine Department, Epidemiology Unit, Italian Workers' Compensation Authority, Rome, Italy. alberto.scarselli@ispesl.it
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scarselli
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Binazzi
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Di Marzio
mesh_terms: D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000032:analysis*; D001554:Benzene / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational; D001554:Benzene