Oregon Outlaws Topping Off At The Pumps In Move To Curb Airborne Benzene
Are you in the habit of squeezing a few extra drops into your tank after the pump has automatically shut off? If so don't try it in Oregon! The state has outlawed topping off in an effort to reduce airborne levels of benzene, a known carcinogen.
Uri Papish, air quality program operations manager for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) said this about the new law:
“We know that in a lot of counties the benzene levels are far above public health benchmarks, monitoring at one location in Lane County in 2008, for example, showed an average annual benzene reading more than 13 times above the Environmental Protection Agency’s health recommendation.
How will this actually reduce airborne benzene levels? Papish has answers:
Prohibiting gas station attendants from topping off gas tanks — adding just a little more gas after the pump has automatically shut off — keeps them from spilling gas, which releases benzene and other pollutants.
Though the move is being hailed by many as a piece of difficult to enforce regulatory overkill, many americans are still unfamiliar with the dangers of benzene exposure. I would argue that any small reglatory measure taken to reduce airbourne benzene, even if only partially successful, is a good idea. Especially in this case where a simple action can make a big difference in airborne benzene levels, and thus improve public health. But how big of a difference can this really make?
Lisa Arkin of the Oregon Toxics Alliance is optomistic:
"The DEQ estimates indicate that the changes will reduce benzene emissions by 28 tons annually and other volatile organic compounds by 1,610 tons per year."
Cheap to implement, results look nice on paper, this seems like an elegantly simple way decrease the public's exposure to benzene.
Arkin:
“For us, the best result is cleaning up our air, but the second-best thing is it reduces greenhouse gas emissions. … It’s not about intruding into people’s personal car space. It’s that this (benzene) is going into the total airshed of our community.”
Benzene is a carcinogenic volitile organic hydrocarbon well known to wreak havoc on the human immune system. Studies continue to show that prolonged exposure, even to small amounts of benzene, disrupts the production of blood cells in humans. This can lead to a long list of bone marrow failure disorders and several types of leukemia including, aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, non-Hogkins lymphoma, acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute myelogenous leukemia, and others.
