Benzene Level in L.A. Gasoline Criticized : Pollution: An environmental group says premium fuel on the West Coast is the ‘dirtiest in the country.’ Air quality officials say state standards consider overall health factors.
Gasoline sold in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities has higher levels of the carcinogen benzene than fuel in most other major U.S. cities, an environmental group said Monday.
“Most large oil companies in the country have put health-threatening quantities of cancer-causing benzene in their gasoline, especially in premium unleaded grades,” charged Edwin S. Rothschild, energy policy director for Citizen Action, a public interest research group based in Washington. He said “premium gasoline on the West Coast is the dirtiest in the country.”
But California air quality officials said the state has the highest overall standards intended to reduce health and environment hazards related to gasoline. They said the higher benzene content is largely a result of the state’s comprehensive program to reduce a number of hazards, including air pollution.
Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, said that by 1992 the state expects to have implemented stricter standards for both benzene, a natural component of crude petroleum shown to cause cancer in animals, and aromatic hydrocarbons, which create benzene on combustion.
Benzene and aromatics are used to raise the octane levels of commercial gasolines. Since restrictions were placed on the use of octane-boosting lead, oil companies have steadily increased their use of benzene and aromatics.
Sessa said “the real problem” is that because state regulations restrict the use of many octane-enhancing additives, “companies in California may tend to rely more heavily on aromatics to enhance octane.”
The report, based on data collected in 1989 by the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Assn., said that premium unleaded gasoline in both Los Angeles and San Francisco contains an average 2.7% benzene, trailing only Seattle’s 3% and Atlanta’s 2.9%. Los Angeles’ regular unleaded fuel was on average 1.9% benzene, fourth highest in the nation.
“Going to (higher octane) not only costs you a great deal of money, it can be a risk to your health,” Rothschild told a press conference.
But the American Petroleum Institute, an industry association, charged that the group is “irresponsibly misusing data on benzene to present an unduly alarmist picture of the health risks associated with motorists’ exposure to gasoline.”
The research group also listed the benzene content of gasolines for the seven largest petroleum refiners. Chevron Corp. topped the lists for both premium unleaded and regular unleaded, 2.8% and 2.0%, respectively.
Chevron officials said in a statement that their gasolines meet all state and federal regulations. Should those standards change, the statement continued, “Chevron will meet (them).”
The report said the greatest cancer risk from benzene comes from “inhaling vapors while refueling.” It noted an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimate that the chances of developing cancer from a lifetime of self-service refueling is about eight in 100,000, or about 220 additional cases of cancer per year in the Los Angeles Basin.
Chevron officials, however, said the company “does not believe there is a significant health risk from benzene or other aromatics in its gasolines at exposure levels at the service-station pump by the public.”
Clean air legislation now before Congress would set limits on benzene levels in the new cleaner-burning “reformulated” gasolines now being developed by several oil companies. The Senate bill would limit benzene content in gasoline to 1% and the House bill to 0.8%.
