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Workers at fuel stations risk leukemia

* Pakistan doesn’t have a system to check carcinogens in fuel

By Muzaffar Ali

LAHORE: Workers at petrol stations and auto garages are continually exposed to leukemia due to benzene evaporating from petrol during refueling and servicing of the vehicles, oncologists told Daily Times.

They said that workers dealing with petrol should take such precautionary measures as wearing goggles and gloves to avoid direct contact with petrol. They expressed particular concern regarding child workers using petrol as a solvent to clean auto parts in garages. This posed numerous hazards to their health - inhalation and skin absorption of petrol fumes can cause depression, low red cell counts, de-fatting of skin and even cancer due to the benzene in petrol, they said.

Dr Kamal Bajwa of the Children Hospital Lahore said that according to a study conducted by the Agha Khan University, a child living in the vicinity of a petrol station or a commercial garage was four times more likely to develop leukemia than a child living elsewhere. He said the risk appeared to be even greater for acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia, which was seven times more common among children living close to a petrol station or commercial garage.

Dr Muhammad Asif of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said that benzene was recognised as a ‘class-one’ carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. He said that workers exposed themselves to cancer every time they refueled the vehicles, breathed exhaust fumes or drove in traffic. He said there was no safe level of exposure to a carcinogen so any contact should be completely avoided.

Pakistan Medical Society chairman Dr Masood Akhtar Sheikh said the government and NGOs should collect the blood samples of those working at petrol stations and auto garages and test them in labs. He said the workers showing leukemia symptoms should be immediately treated free of cost as they could not pay for the expensive treatment. He said that thousands of petrol pumps in Lahore and its suburbs were causing air pollution. “1,250 persons die annually due to air pollution in Lahore only,” he said, adding that no figures were available regarding the incidence of cancer in workers at petrol stations.

Dr Hafiz Butt of King Edward Medical University’s Oncology Department said the United States and many European countries had imposed restrictions on the use of benzene in petrol and diesel, and all petrol stations were required to install a vapour recovery system. Such restrictions and provisions are but dreams in Pakistan, he added.

He said that as little as five years of benzene exposure could cause various forms of leukemia and could even result in death in certain instances.

Oncologist Dr Rasheed Khan said there were acute chances of leukemia in the blood cells of workers at petrol stations but no authorised organisation had ever conducted a survey in this regard.

Dr Kamran Malik said that the International Agency for Research on Cancer had listed benzene’s concentration cut off level at 0.1 percent weight. He said there was no classification for benzene in petrol and other products in Pakistan, and that this was negligence on the government’s part.

He said that fuels contained two to three percent benzene but 20 to 40 percent aromatics, which produced benzene on combustion. He said that benzene evaporating from petrol mixed in water and contaminted it, and water available at petrol stations could be more hazardous than the fumes in air.

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