J Prev Med Public Health.
2009 Mar;42(2):96-103. 10.3961/jpmph.2009.42.2.96.
BTEX Exposure and its Health Effects in Pregnant Women Following the Hebei Spirit Oil Spill
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Preventive Medicine, BK21 Research Division for Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Korea. eunheeha@ewha.ac.kr
- 2Korean women's Environmental Network, Korea.
- 3Department of Preventive Medicine, Dankook University Medical College and Research Institute of Children's Health and Environment, Dankook Medical Center, Korea.
- 4Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Korea.
- 5Taean Institute of Environmental Health, Korea.
- 6Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Korea.
- 7School of chemical, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Korea.
- KMID: 797662
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.2009.42.2.96
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
We evaluated the health effects of exposure to BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene, o-Xylene) in the Taean area after the Hebei Spirit oil spill.
METHODS
We used a questionnaire survey to look for health effects among 80 pregnant women 2 to 3 months following the Hebei Spirit oil spill. Their BTEX exposures were estimated using the CALPUFF method. We then used a multiple logistic regression analysis to evaluate the effects of BTEX exposure on the women's health effets.
RESULTS
Pregnant women who lived near the accident site reported more symptoms of eye irritation and headache than those who lived farther from the site. There was a trend of decreasing symptoms with an increase in distance from the spill site. Pregnant women exposed to higher ambient cumulative levels of Xylene were significantly more likely to report symptoms of the skin (OR 8.01 95% CI=1.74-36.76) in the first day after the accident and significantly more likely to report abdominal pain (OR 3.86 95% CI=1.02-14.59 for Ethylbenzene, OR 6.70 95% CI=1.82-24.62 for Xylene) during the 1st through 4th days following the accident.
CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that exposure to BTEX from an oil spill is correlated with an increased risk of health effects among pregnant women. This implies the need to take proper measures, including the development of a national policy for environmental health emergencies and a plan for studying the short- and long-term chronic health effects associated with such spills.
Keyword
MeSH Terms
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Adult
Benzene/*adverse effects/analysis
Benzene Derivatives/*adverse effects/analysis
*Disasters
*Environmental Exposure
Environmental Pollutants/*adverse effects/analysis
Eye Diseases/chemically induced/epidemiology
Female
Health Surveys
Humans
*Petroleum
Pregnancy
Questionnaires
Respiratory Tract Diseases/chemically induced/epidemiology
Risk Factors
Skin Diseases/chemically induced/epidemiology
Time Factors
Toluene/analysis
*Women's Health
Xylenes/analysis
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