Background Benzene Information
Benzene is a chemical that has been known to cause cancer in humans since 1979.
While most people are exposed to benzene in small amounts through air pollution, gasoline, and other environmental routes, those who work around benzene-containing products or the chemical itself are especially at risk of developing cancer.
Specific workers in various industries may be exposed to benzene through inhalation or dermal contact with benzene.
Benzene-Related Cancers
While researchers have known of benzene’s ability to cause leukemia in humans for decades, in 2009, they found additional evidence that it can cause the following diseases:
- Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
- Acute non-lymphocytic leukemia
- Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
- Multiple myeloma
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)
Benzene exposure has also been associated with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), which is frequently recognized as “pre-leukemia.”
Recent Confirmation of Benzene Causing Cancers
A December 2017 study reevaluated previous information provided in earlier studies on benzene and reaffirmed its carcinogenic status. Researchers provide the following information in this new study:
Benzene is easily absorbed, widely distributed, and extensively metabolised…It exhibits many of the key characteristics of carcinogens. In particular, strong evidence, including in exposed humans, shows that benzene is metabolically activated, induces oxidative stress, is genotoxic, is immunosuppressive, and causes haematotoxicity. [Footnotes omitted]
The study further explains how benzene negatively affects DNA as well as the blood-forming organs such as bone marrow in humans and animals alike.
Legal Compensation Cases For Benzene Cancers
If you or someone you know have developed one of the previously mentioned diseases after occupational exposure to benzene, we encourage you to complete a free case evaluation.
For more information, view our Benzene Overview page, or our Frequently Asked Questions page.
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