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Floor plan of the water tanks in the basement of the building adjacent to the garage. The water tank that was repaired and where a fan was positioned to accelerate the drying the paint is marked as A. The drinking water tank that was contaminated with vapors from Tank A is marked as B. C indicates the water pump for Tank A. D indicates the water pump for Tank B. The continuous blue lines indicate the walls separating the tanks that at the time of the accident were not reaching the ceiling. The continuous red lines indicate the walls separating the tanks from the remaining building and from the water tanks. The black dotted lines indicate the windows installed after the accident to facilitate access to the water tanks. The arrows indicate the direction of the vapors from water tank A at the time of the accident.
Source publication
We studied subjective health symptoms in a population accidentally exposed to high styrene concentrations in drinking tap water. The contamination occurred during the reparation of a water tank.
Residents of 27 apartments in two buildings using the contaminated water were contacted. A questionnaire on subjective symptoms was administered to 84 out...
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Citations
... Usually, natural disasters end of their own accord, but the long-term effects of chemical spills are unclear [18]. Although many industrial and environmental disasters involving neurotoxins or radioactive contamination have occurred over the last few decades, the effects on psychological function have been little studied [19]. Very few reports have described the acute effects of exposure to SM. Acute inhalation of >50 ppm SM (AEGL-2) irritates the nasal mucosa and eyes. ...
A styrene monomer (SM) oil vapor leak occurred at a chemical plant in Seosan, South Korea on 17 May 2019. A bad odor developed, and many residents complained of various symptoms and visited nearby medical institutions. We analyzed the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients treated at local hospitals and clinics for symptoms related to SM exposure, and identified factors affecting symptom persistence in any organ. Data were collected by the main Seosan office, and 1201 (33.0%) subjects agreed to participate in this study. We used the Assessment of Chemical Exposure toolkit of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Logistic regression was performed to determine whether mental health symptoms prior to the accident were risk factors for symptom persistence. The strongest risk factor for persistence of at least one symptom in any organ was a preexisting mental health symptom (odds ratio [OR] = 5.47, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.57–11.65). Persistent symptoms of the nervous (OR = 1.54), musculoskeletal (OR = 1.92), and gastrointestinal (OR = 1.45) systems were observed. Prior mental health symptoms are risk factors for persistent physical symptoms after a chemical disaster. After a disaster, management of individuals with preaccident mental symptoms or disease is needed.
... Both short-and long-term exposures to styrene can result in neurological effects. [11] There are no studies in relation to the effect of Styrene on histological changes in the brain. Cytotoxic cerebral edema is an increase in intracellular fluid secondary to neuronal, glial, or endothelial cell membrane injury, as might be encountered in someone with a generalized hypoxic/ ischemic insult or with a metabolic derangement that prevents maintenance of the normal membrane ionic gradient. ...
Background: Styrene is an organic compound used to make plastics and rubber. Exposure to toxic levels of styrene is a rare phenomenon. Hence, there is a paucity of knowledge of its effect on various organs. The objective of the present study is to study the histopathological features of the organs affected in the deceased persons in a population who have been accidentally exposed to high concentrations of styrene.
Methods: The present study is an observational study conducted in the Department of Pathology, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam. Organs from 11 deceased cases were received following autopsy. All the organs were grossly examined and microscopically studied, following staining by Hematoxylin and Eosin stains.
Results: In the present study, the lung is the most common organ affected (100%) characterized by acute lung injury. Other organs showing significant histopathological findings were the brain, liver, kidney, and spleen. Brain showing edema and congestion in 90% cases, liver revealed cholestasis, hydropic change, and congestion. In the kidney, cloudy swelling was the most common histopathological finding (70%), and in the spleen, congested sinusoids were seen in 100% of cases.
Conclusion: Lungs, brain, liver, kidneys, and spleen showed histopathological changes in the deceased cases following styrene exposure. The lung is the most commonly affected organ leading to acute lung injury.
... Research finds that sensorial information affects consumer perceptions of drinking water quality (de França Doria 2010;WHO 2017). Consumers may also associate negative drinking water sensory aesthetics to health risks (Jardine et al. 1999;Arnedo-Pena et al. 2003;de Franca Doria et al. 2005;Schade et al. 2015;WBTV 2019). In addition, public trust in PWS varies across demographic groups (Pierce & Gonzalez 2017). ...
United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) drinking water violation report is currently one of the most reliable measures of evaluating United States drinking water quality. While states continuously strive to comply with federal water quality standards making this documentation continuously relevant, consumers are likely to perceive water quality through sensory aesthetics or physical and virtual social networks. This research quantifies the relationship between consumer perceptions and government-reported drinking water quality to provide insights to state water managers and policymakers. We evaluated consumer perceptions of tap water using weekly social media data. The online search returned 898,709 mentions and 799,035 posts. Net sentiment, measured as the number of negative posts minus the number of positive posts divided by the number of posts expressing sentiment, was determined and ranged from −100 to 100. Net sentiment was uncorrelated with USEPA weekly water quality violations for most states. Net sentiment was correlated with violations related to arsenic standards (−0.223) and a total number of violations (−0.220) for Washington. For California, net sentiment was correlated with violations related to disinfectants and other organic compounds (−0.295). In many cases, water violations in one city became national news, which eclipsed local water issues circulating on social media. HIGHLIGHTS
Estimated state sentiment scores on tap water perception in the U.S.;
Compiled government agency data on water quality violation report.;
Found no correlation between sentiment scores and government agency data for most states.;
Increasing consumer engagement and awareness of violation report data is needed.;
... Styrene is irritating to eyes, throat and skin when inhaled (Arnedo-Pena et al., 2003;Rabovsky et al., 2001). The IARC classifies styrene as a group 2B carcinogen, that is, possibly carcinogenic to human (World Health Organization, 2002). ...
Recycled materials such as expanded polystyrene (EPS) are increasing in the food market and some hazardous chemicals may exist in recycled PS resins. Therefore, a method of solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry followed by chemometric tools applied to the data obtained allowed the identification of markers for virgin and recycled EPS. The multivariate statistical analysis was developed to characterize the profile of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in virgin and recycled EPS containers, and identify the potential VOCs markers responsible for EPS containers discrimination. A total of 99 compounds were identified in virgin and recycled EPS containers. Among these, 17 compounds contributing the most to the discrimination, were selected based on their variables importance in the projection (VIP) values, including o-xylene, acetophenone, ethylbenzene, α-ethylstyrene, 2-phenylpropenal, propylbenzene, 2-phenyl-1-propene, undecanal, benzoic acid ethyl ester, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, decanal, benzylcarboxaldehyde, isopropylbenzene, 2,4-diphenyl-1-butene, dodecanal, benzaldehyde and nonanal. To evaluate the health risk of EPS containers, migration tests from EPS containers into two food simulants (10% ethanol, 3% acetic acid) were conducted. It should be highlighted that high amount of styrene was detected. Nevertheless, analysed materials accomplish with current EU Regulation No.10/2011. The proposed method finds the differentiation markers and provides a reliable tool to discriminate virgin and recycled EPS containers, which could be an additional tool for quality control of EPS containers.
... The FDA has determined that the styrene concentration in bottled drinking water should not exceed 0.1 ppm (FDA, 2007). Abdominal discomfort was observed in humans exposed to elevated levels of styrene in drinking water (Arnedo-Pena et al., 2003). Tap water is seen to be safer than bottled water (Ashton, 2014), because polystyrene (PS) and Styrofoam leach styrene into the bottled water containers (Maqbool and Ahmed, 2007). ...
... Therefore, it is necessary to establish an efficient and reliable method to confirm if a recycled EPS container is more harmful than a virgin one, as well as to distinguish these two kinds of EPS containers. Styrene is irritating to eyes, nose, throat and skin when inhaled (Rabovsky et al. 2001;Arnedo-Pena et al. 2003), and it acts as a depressant on the central nervous system (Arvanitoyannis & Bosnea 2004). The IARC classifies styrene as a group 2B carcinogen that is possibly carcinogenic to human (World Health Organization 2002). ...
The migration of styrene and ethylbenzene from virgin and recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS) containers into isooctane was investigated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). EPS containers were in two-sided contact with isooctane at temperatures of 25 and 40(o)C. It was shown that recycled EPS gave greater migration ratios compared with virgin EPS, which indicated that styrene and ethylbenzene migrated more easily from recycled EPS. In addition, an analytical method to distinguish between virgin and recycled EPS containers was established by GC-MS followed by the principal component analysis (PCA). The relative peak area of the identified compounds was used as input data for PCA. Distinct separation between virgin and recycled EPS was achieved on a score plot. Extension of this method to other plastics may be of great interest for recycled plastics identification.
... When a crisis occurs, the first priority is the management of the crisis, science lagging far behind. Some studies have reported on the occurrence of self-reported health symptoms following chemical incidents (Sim et al., 2010;Na et al., 2013;Tjalvin et al., 2015;Wilken et al., 2015), or on the relationship between health surveys and chemical exposures as measured in environmental matrices (Fowle et al., 1996;Arnedo-Pena et al., 2003). In general, the validity of self-reported symptoms in exposure assessment is subject to information bias by phenomena as anxiety and mass socio-genic illness (Gallay et al., 2002). ...
Background:
Following a train derailment, several tons of acrylonitrile (ACN) exploded, inflamed and part of the ACN ended up in the sewage system of the village of Wetteren. More than 2000 residents living in the close vicinity of the accident and along the sewage system were evacuated. A human biomonitoring study of the adduct N-2-cyanoethylvaline (CEV) was carried out days 14-21 after the accident.
Objectives:
(1) To describe the short-term health effects that were reported by the evacuated residents following the train accident, and (2) to explore the association between the CEV concentrations, extrapolated at the time of the accident, and the self-reported short-term health effects.
Methods:
Short-term health effects were reported in a questionnaire (n=191). An omnibus test of independence was used to investigate the association between the CEV concentrations and the symptoms. Dose-response relationships were quantified by Generalized Additive Models (GAMs).
Results:
The most frequently reported symptoms were local symptoms of irritation. In non-smokers, dose-dependency was observed between the CEV levels and the self-reporting of irritation (p=0.007) and nausea (p=0.007). Almost all non-smokers with CEV concentrations above 100pmol/g globin reported irritation symptoms. Both absence and presence of symptoms was reported by non-smokers with CEV concentrations below the reference value and up to 10 times the reference value. Residents who visited the emergency services reported more symptoms. This trend was seen for the whole range of CEV concentrations, and thus independently of the dose.
Discussion and conclusion:
The present study is one of the first to relate exposure levels to a chemical released during a chemical incident to short-term (self-reported) health effects. A dose-response relation was observed between the CEV concentrations and the reporting of short-term health effects in the non-smokers. Overall, the value of self-reported symptoms to assess exposure showed to be limited. The results of this study confirm that a critical view should be taken when considering self-reported health complaints and that ideally biomarkers are monitored to allow an objective assessment of exposure.
... The technique of gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry allows the identification of the compounds released by these materials, and based on this information, it is possible to perform text mining to identify possible adverse effects linked to their use. Accordingly, this process was carried out to visualize possible health problems associated with different molecules released from tested polystyrene containers, such as styrene, cumene, tretadecane, pentadecane, acetophenone and ethylbenzene ( Figure 4) (Leibman, 1975;USEPA, 1988;2000a;2000b;Arnedo-Pena et al., 2003;Sliwinska-Kowalska et al., 2003;Seeber et al., 2004;Muhammad et al., 2005;WHO, 2005;ASTDR, 2007;Dusseldorp et al., 2007;OSHA, 2010). These chemicals do possess a broad spectrum of toxicities. ...
Plastic materials are widely used in daily life. They contain a wide range of compounds with low molecular mass, including monomeric and oligomeric residues of polymerization, solvent-related chemicals residues, and various additives. Plastic products made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) are currently employed as food containers. This study therefore sought to identify volatile organic compounds released by EPS from food packages and utensils used in Cartagena, Colombia. EPS-based plates, food and soup containers were subjected to various temperatures and released chemicals captured by solid phase microextraction, followed by on-column thermal desorption and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis. The results revealed the presence of at least 30 different compounds in the EPS-based products examined; the most frequently found were benzaldehyde, styrene, ethylbenzene and tetradecane. The release of these molecules was temperature-dependent. It is therefore advisable to regulate the use of EPS products which may be subjected to heating in order to protect human health by decreasing the exposure to these chemicals. © 2014 Institute for Environmental Research in Hydrographic Basins (IPABHi). All rights reserved.
... L'esposizione acuta a dosi elevate comporta un effetto irritante a carico della congiuntiva, della cute e delle mucose delle alte vie aeree (6,7,8), inoltre è causa di alterazioni del sistema nervoso centrale (9,10,11) per effetto depressivo-inibitorio aspecifico che può manifestarsi con cefalea, vertigini, astenia, disorientamento, amnesia, sonnolenza. Benché appaia controverso il riconoscimento di un effetto persistente (12) e si trovino in letteratura dati contraddittori (12,13,14,15), l'esposizione cronica a dosi relativamente basse è stata posta in correlazione con effetti neurotossici (obnubilamento, turbe dell'umore, anomalie EEG, diminuzione della velocità di conduzione nervosa, disfunzione del sistema neurovegetativo, rallentamento dei tempi di reazione, alterazione uditiva) (16,17) e si ritiene che possa contribuire allo sviluppo di malattie croniche del sistema nervoso centrale (18). ...
... Come conseguenza, il rapporto M1/M2 si è invertito già dopo poche ore dalla fine dell'esposizione. In particolare, si sono riscontrati valori molto elevati del rapporto M1/M2 a 22 (3,3) a 31 (4,1) e a 36 ore (3,8) dall'inizio dell'esposizione ( Fig. 2a): valori così alti non si sono mai riscontrati dopo l'esposizione a solo S. Un cambiamento, sia pure meno accentuato, si è potuto rilevare anche nel rapporto M1-R/M1-S (Fig. 2b). ...
www.gimle.fsm.it EXCRETION KINETICS OF PHENYLHYDROXYETHYL MERCAPTURIC ACIDS (PHEMAS), ETHANOL CONSUMPTION, AND CHRONIC EXPOSURE TO STYRENE: PRELIMINARY DATA ON HUMANS. Styrene (S) is a widely used aromatic hydrocarbon, responsible for several adverse effects. In humans, the metabolism of S is well characterized: besides the major metabolites (mandelic and phenylglyoxylic acid), a minor metabolic pathway leads to phenylhydroxyethyl mercapturic acids (PHEMAs) (N-acetyl-S-(1- phenyl-2-hydroxyethyl)-L-cysteine (M1) and N-acetyl-S-(2-phenyl-2- hydroxyethyl)-L-cysteine (M2)), that are potentially useful for biomonitoring purposes. A pilot study on a volunteer exposed under controlled conditions to S, with or without ethanol administration, allowed us to characterize the excretion profile of PHEMAs and the ethanol-induced interference on PHEMAs metabolic pathway. We further considered a group of 9 workers exposed to S during the working week to determine the confounding role of chronic exposure. Our results confirm the wide interindividual variability of both the biotransformation rate of S into PHEMAs and of the excretion rate of these metabolites. Moreover, both the above parameters changed during the working week, suggesting the existence of a large intraindividual variability as a consequence of the exposure to S and to other solvents. As a practical rule, the data indicate that it is necessary to collect samples at the beginning of the working week when studies on the correlation between genotype and phenotype are carried out. Finally, the results emphasise the importance of excluding an even extemporary ethanol assumption when practicing a biological monitoring programme based on the determination of urinary PHEMAs.
Nanofibers mats, prepared from poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) containing dispersed dye Nile red (NR) were applied in a proof of concept study as optical sensors for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) dispersed in an aqueous phase. Benefiting from the solubility of the dye, and in some cases, also of the polymer in model solvents belonging to the group of VOCs, an increase of emission was observed for increasing solvent concentration in the sample.
