Environmental and Biological Assessment of Exposure to Benzene in Petroleum Workers

Occupational exposure to benzene was measured in two gasoline marketing terminals and five major refineries in Singapore. A total of 280 workers were monitored over two years. This assessment was carried out with two primary objectives: (1) To find out the extent of occupational exposure to benzene in the petroleum industry in Singapore, (2) To identify suitable biomarkers for monitoring of low levels of benzene exposure. The exposure was measured in five different categories of petroleum and petrochemical workers, i.e., truck drivers, despatch assistant, process operators, oil movements operators and laboratory technicians. The results revealed wide variations in exposure, from 0.01 to 13.6 ppm for personal time weighted average (TWA) exposure over the whole workshift. The exposure of truck drivers appeared to be the highest, with geometric mean (GM) of 1.98 ppm (ranged from 0.25 to 13.6 ppm). The average benzene exposure for process operators was relative low with a GM of 0.04 ppm. Lowest benzene exposure was found in the laboratory technicians, with a GM of 0.02 ppm. As cigarette smoking is known to affect metabolism of benzene, data analyses on the relationships with environmental exposure were conducted only on the 190 nonsmokers. The results showed that urinary trans, trans-muconic acid (ttMA), unmetabolized benzene in urine (UBZ) and benzene in blood (BBZ) were better biomarkers for low level benzene exposure as compared to urinary phenolic metabolites in urine, such as hydroquinone, phenol and catechol.     

Varying responses of northeastern North American amphibians to the chytrid pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis

Chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is widespread among amphibians in northeastern North America. It is unknown, however, whether Bd has the potential to cause extensive amphibian mortalities in northeastern North America as have occurred elsewhere. In the laboratory, we exposed seven common northeastern North American amphibian species to Bd to assess the likelihood of population-level effects from the disease. We exposed larval wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) and postmetamorphic frogs of six other species to two different strains of Bd, a northeastern strain (JEL404) and a strain that caused die-offs of amphibians in Panama (JEL423), under ideal in vitro growth conditions for Bd. Exposed American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) all died; thus, this species may be the most likely to die from Bd-caused disease in the wild. Both Bd strains were associated with mortalities of wood frogs, although half the metamorphs survived. The Bd strain from Panama killed metamorphic green frogs (L. clamitans), whereas the northeastern strain did not, which means novel strains of Bd may lead to death even when local strains may not. No mortality was observed in four species (bullfrogs [L. catesbeianus], northern leopard frogs [L. pipiens], spring peepers [Pseudacris crucifer], and blue-spotted salamanders [Ambystoma laterale]) and in some individuals of green frogs and wood frogs that we exposed. This finding suggests these six species may be Bd vectors. Our results show that systematic exposures of amphibian species to Bd in the laboratory may be a good first step in the identification of species susceptible to Bd-caused declines and in directing regional conservation efforts aimed at susceptible species.     

Effects of chytrid fungus and a glyphosate-based herbicide on survival and growth of wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus)

Anthropogenic-derived stressors in the environment, such as contaminants, are increasingly considered important cofactors that may decrease the immune response of amphibians to pathogens. Few studies, however, have integrated amphibian disease and contaminants to test this multiple-stressor hypothesis for amphibian declines. We examined whether exposure to sublethal concentrations of a glyphosate-based herbicide and two strains of the pathogenic chytrid fungus, Batrachochrytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) could: (1) sublethally affect wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) by altering the time to and size at metamorphosis, and (2) directly affect survivability of wood frogs after metamorphosis. Neither Bd strain nor herbicide exposure alone significantly altered growth or time to metamorphosis. The two Bd strains did not differ in their pathogenicity, and both caused mortality in post-metamorphic wood frogs. There was no evidence of an interaction between treatments, indicating a lack of herbicide-induced susceptibility to Bd. However, the trends in our data suggest that exposure of wood frogs to a high concentration of glyphosate-based herbicide may reduce Bd-caused mortality compared to animals exposed to Bd alone. These results exemplify the complexities inherent when populations are coping with multiple stressors. In this case, the perceived stressor, glyphosate-based herbicide, appeared to affect the pathogen more than the host's immune system, relieving the host from disease-caused effects. This suggests caution when invoking multiple stressors as a cause for increased disease susceptibility and indicates that the effects of multiple stressors on disease outcome depend on the interrelationships of stressors to both the pathogen and the host.