الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 120 |  |  |
| | | from | 120 | | |
Abstract
Gasoline is a complex manufactured mixture that does not exist naturally in the environment. It consists mostly of several hundred hydrocarbons obtained by the fractional distillation. Aromatic compounds are included in the gasoline [principally benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene, and xylene (BTEX)].
The cross- sectional study was conducted at some gasoline filling stations in Alexandria, and at the occupational health and air pollution laboratories at the High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University from during the period from February to March 2018.
The main aim of the study wasto assess the oxidative stress and some trace metals among workers at gasoline filling stations in Alexandria.
In this study, some trace metals were selected for measuring their blood levels including Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn.The activity of some antioxidant enzymes like SOD and Glutathione peroxidase were assessed in parallel using UV visible technique. This subject is selected for its importance to showthe possible impact of occupational exposure to petroleum products on the oxidative stress of the exposed workers, and to correlate their blood levels to some environmental concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene at different gasoline filling stationsto highlight how environmental measures can affect and linked to the biological measurements.
- All the workers were male (100.0%) and urban residents. The median of the age for the exposed workers was 38.5 years comparing to 44.0 among the controls. The majority of the workers and the controls were married and university educated, but has just enough income. About 62% of the exposed workers were smokers comparing to 32% of the controls. The results of the study revealed that all measured race metal levels and antioxidant enzymatic activities were significantly lower among the exposed workers comparing to the controls (p<0.001).All trace metal levels decreased significantly in relation to SOD activity among the exposed workers, whereas only Zn and Cu decreased in relation to SOD and glutathione peroxidase activity among the controls. Regarding the hematological profile of gasoline workers, most of the hematological measures were significantly different among the exposed workers comparing to the control group although the mean levels were still within the normal ranges.The hygienic effect of the mixture of BTEX at different gasoline stations was higher than 1 which is the allowed borderline and that is risky.
CONCLUSIONS
Exposure to BTEX at gasoline filling stations lowers the levels of antioxidant activities and trace metals probably due to the higher hygienic effect of the BTEX which was measured at different gasoline stations using MIRAN IR system. In addition, the exposed workers did not take the necessary precautions by wearing the required set of the personal protective equipment to avoid the dangerous effect of BTEX exposure.
The impact of occupational exposure to gasoline on decreasing the levels of trace metals and the antioxidant enzymes among gasoline station workers in Alexandria-Egypt was declared, and accordingly, the present study recommend the following:
RECOMMENDATIONS
1.Development of the intervention of policy makers and stakeholders to take necessary steps to reduce the emissions of pollutants in the gasoline filling stations.
2.Control strategies should be adopted to reduce the vapor concentration in the gasoline filling work environment, toprotect gasoline-filling workers.
3.Programs should be proposed to prevent adverse health effects among gasoline filling workers.
4.Establishing training programs targeting gasoline filling workers and different levels of social, cultural, and administrative of population.
5.The regulations must be put to limit and decrease the higher concentrations of BTEX.
6.Consolidate and strengthen efforts to implement legislation to reduce and mitigate the harmful effects of exposure to BTEX.
7.Medical observation, including pre-employment and periodic check-ups for antioxidant levels, trace metals and blood count cells should be considered.
8. Workers exposed to petroleum pollutants must be supplied with supplement of he required antioxidants and trace metals doses, especially with increasing periods of exposure.
Recommended future studies:
1-The effect of work pattern among the gasoline filling station workers.
2-The ergonomic hazards for the gasoline filling station workers