Topic: Prevention of Styrene and Formaldehyde Poisoning

This paper is unique because I myself suffer from styrene and formaldehyde poisoning. Suffering from this kind of poisoning is very hard for a doctor to diagnose, yet is harder on the patient because they do not know what's going on with their body. It took my doctor approximately eight years to make the diagnoses. The diagnoses was only made because the extensive research that was done, and the doctors knowing that I had hauled Styrofoam food trays and many loads of products that emitted formaldehyde. This information came from my personal records.

There are many agencies working to prevent formaldehyde poisoning because of its effects on the body. One agency is the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry other wise known as ATSDR. OSHA states that "Short-term exposure to formaldehyde can be fatal; however, the odor threshold is low enough that irritation of the eyes and mucous membranes will occur before these levels are achieved. Long-term exposure to low levels of formaldehyde may cause respiratory difficulty, eczema, and sensitization. Formaldehyde is classified as a human carcinogen and has been linked to nasal and lung cancer, and with possible links to brain cancer and leukemia." Formaldehyde is a hard chemical to stay away from, whenever you burn something formaldehyde is one of the chemicals emitted in the smoke, this includes tobacco smoke. Because formaldehyde has asthma like symptoms and is linked to tobacco smoke the government has chosen to fight the tobacco companies to keep it away from our children. There are ads on television where an adult is smoking in a chair and a child is playing with blocks on the floor and the blocks have letters that spell out the word ASTHMA.

The other way to get formaldehyde poisoning is: Formaldehyde Poisoning from Aspartame. "Aspartame (NutraSweet) breaks down into methanol (wood alcohol). Methanol quickly converts to formaldehyde in the body. Formaldehyde causes gradual and eventually severe damage to the neurological system, immune system and causes permanent genetic damage at extremely low doses." There are many web pages explaining this in detail if you type: "Formaldehyde + Poisoning" into a search engine. So if you're on a diet you may want to think about this aspect.

Styrene poisoning has very similar effects as formaldehyde poisoning. These effects according to the EPA are "Acute (short-term) exposure to styrene in humans results in mucous membrane and eye irritation, and gastrointestinal effects. Chronic (long-term) exposure to styrene in humans results in effects on the central nervous system (CNS), such as headache, fatigue, weakness, and depression; peripheral neuropathy; and minor effects on some kidney enzyme functions and on the blood." With affects like this you would think that there would be laws or regulations keeping this away form the public to keep health care under control. According to OSHA "A voluntary compliance program has been adopted by industries using styrene. This program would reduce styrene exposures to a 50 ppm (parts per million), TWA (time-weighted average) with a 100 ppm (15 minute) ceiling." This only applies to workers in these industries not the public.

There are many ways to be poisoned by styrene. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the EPA has linked styrene poisoning to tobacco products. According to ATSDR "Breathing indoor air that is contaminated with styrene vapors from building materials, consumer products, and tobacco smoke. Smoking cigarettes or eating a lot of food packaged in polystyrene containers." The EPA says "Exposure can also occur when people breathe air contaminated with cigarette smoke or automobile exhaust." The government is going after the tobacco companies to limit the exposure by tobacco products, but evidently it's all right for other industries to contaminate the public with the same chemicals that are found in the tobacco smoke.

There are two ways the public is exposed with out their knowledge.

The first way is styrene is added to their food such as "a flavoring additive to such food as baked goods, frozen dairy products, soft candy, and gelatins and puddings, with permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)."Yet the EPA states under HOW MIGHT I BE EXPOSED? "Food processing companies use small amounts of styrene as a flavoring agent in foods such as ice cream and candy." They do not have to list styrene on the label it merely listed as artificial flavor. As you can see the foods that are listed here are basically aimed at our children.

The second way a person can become exposed to styrene is also through their food when the styrene leaches out of the Styrofoam food trays. I know this for certain because this is how I was contaminated. ATSDR agrees with this "Smoking cigarettes or eating a lot of food packaged in polystyrene containers." The EPA also agrees "Styrene enters the body when people breathe in air or consume food or water contaminated with styrene." According to "The Polystyrene Packaging Council works closely with the Styrene Information and Research Center (SIRC), whose mission is to collect, develop, analyze and communicate pertinent information on styrene." This shows that they have known about this problem the whole time. In one of their older web pages they state "Polystyrene may be expanded into a foam to make Styrofoam. Polystyrene is similar to PVC except that the Cl is replaced by a benzene ring. Polystyrene has a relatively low melting temperature which limits it application to cold or low temperature usage. Food cannot be microwave in polystyrene. It is the cheapest polymer by weight which accounts for its widespread usage." If Styrofoam containers have a relatively low melting temperature, which limits it application to cold or low temperature usage, why are they being used for hot foods? Example McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's and restaurants like Red Lobster use Styrofoam containers for take out. Schools in our area of New York cook in one place and ship the food to the schools in Styrofoam containers so most school students eat a hot meal off Styrofoam at least twice a day this is not including the styrene that is used for the flavoring of the food.

Other points of interest about styrene by the EPA: Absorption - Styrene is absorbed into the body following oral or inhalation exposure. Complete absorption occurred in fasted rats given a total of 3.147 mg styrene by gavage in an aqueous solution (ATSDR 1992, U.S. EPA 1984). A peak blood level of 6 micrograms/mL was reached within minutes (ATSDR 1992). In humans exposed to styrene vapor, pulmonary retention is approximately 66% of the administered concentration; dermal absorption of styrene has been shown to be significantly less than absorption by the respiratory tract (ATSDR 1992). Eye and throat irritation occurred in human volunteers exposed to 376 ppm styrene for 1 hour and was accompanied by increased nasal secretion at exposures of 800 ppm for 4 hours (ATSDR 1992, U.S. EPA 1984). At the end of an 8-hour workshift, workers exposed to 212 ppm styrene had higher urinary levels of alanine aminopeptidase and N-acetyl-glucosaminidase than unexposed workers, indicating potential renal effects of styrene (ATSDR 1992).

Workers engaged in the manufacture of styrene polymers with exposure to generally <1 ppm for 1-36 years had low erythrocyte counts and altered liver enzyme profiles. Blood and liver effects do not appear to be of concern for human exposures to styrene (ATSDR 1992). Occupational studies in humans show styrene to be a neurotoxicant; these results are described in Section IV G.

Several studies have reported an increase in leukemia and lymphoma among workers in the styrene manufacturing industry. However, the studies were inadequate because multiple chemical (e.g., benzene and butadiene) exposures were not addressed (IARC 1979, U.S.EPA 1984, ATSDR 1992). IARC classified styrene as Group 2B, possible human carcinogen (ATSDR 1992).

Birth weights of the offspring among female workers exposed to styrene in the plastics industry was compared. A 4% lower birth weight was detected in babies from women who worked at the most highly- exposed jobs (estimated at 82 ppm), although the difference was not statistically significant (ATSDR 1992, U.S. EPA 1994). Some studies have suggested an increased risk of spontaneous abortion among female workers, but other studies have been negative (ATSDR 1992).

The RfC was calculated from an epidemiological study (U.S. EPA 1994). Fifty workers with an average exposure duration of 8.6 years to concentrations ranging from 10 to 300 ppm (43 to 1278 mg/m ) were given a battery of neurophysiological tests for CNS dysfunction. 3 Increases in reaction times and decreases in memory/concentration correlated to both exposure concentration and duration of exposure. Urinary metabolite concentrations of mandelic acid and phenylglyoxylic acid correlated to exposure concentration and depressed CNS function. Based on these data the U.S. EPA (1994) calculated a chronic RfC for styrene of 1 mg/m (0.23 ppm). 3

Human volunteers exposed to 370-591 mg/m (85.1-135.93 ppm) for 80 minutes had alterations 3 in visual suppression and saccade (rapid, intermittent eye movements) tests when compared to unexposed controls (U.S. EPA 1994). The concentration of 370 mg/m is roughly equivalent to 3 8.88 mg/kg over the 80 minute period . 2

Boat builders occupationally exposed for an average of 10.8 years to 50-140 mg/m styrene 3 showed alterations in the vestibuloocular reflex (U.S. EPA 1994). Other occupational studies have linked styrene exposure to hearing loss (138 mg/m for 8.6 years) and decreased visuomotor 3 accuracy (25 ppm for 4.9 years) (U.S. EPA 1994). Longer reaction times have been reported in several occupational studies with exposure concentrations ranging from 9 to >150 ppm and durations of days to years (U.S. EPA 1984).

Formaldehyde contamination is becoming easier to diagnose because of the awareness by the public and the medical profession. Styrene on the other hand is nearly impossible to diagnose because we are constantly exposed to styrene through our food, it is difficult to prevent this type of contamination. It is my opinion, with the evidence stated above, that we need to limit our exposure to styrene. A good start would be to keep it away from our food. I want to state that I'm not against all polystyrene food packaging. Not all polystyrene packaging products (Plastic) leach styrene, only Styrofoam (polystyrene foam) packages. I believe that a lot of people would be a lot healthier if we removed this product (Styrofoam and styrene flavoring) from our entire food industry.

Sources

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My URL is:
http://www.mhonline.net/~bebear/Bearspage/Index.htm

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