Benzene is a chemical that you can find in car emissions, cigarette smoke, industrial plants, oil, and gasoline; it even shows up in some items made of rubber or plastic. This chemical can lead to cancer and a host of other health issues. Exposure to this compound can happen at work and at home, and it can come from drinking polluted water, or even from inhaling polluted air.

Benzene has no color, but it has a sweet odor. You are especially likely to come across it at industrial sites, but low levels of exposure are not a threat to your health. Benzene can be a hazard at work if you are an industrial worker, however, or if you live close to such a factory. You could be exposed to benzene if you work with manufacturing synthetic fibers, lubricants, detergents, pesticides, and so much more. If you work at a plastics and rubber manufacturer, at an oil refinery, chemical plant, or shoe manufacturer, these are some of the workplaces where you could be a risk for benzene exposure. Even gas service station employees run this risk. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), employers have to monitor benzene at the workplace and workers' exposure to it. Only a certain amount of benzene is allowed to be present in the air.

But even outside, you could be exposed to benzene in the air. There is some in tobacco smoke, wood smoke, vehicle exhaust, and emissions from industrial plants. Hazardous waste sites and even gas stations are places you could find potentially toxic amounts of benzene. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, almost half of all benzene exposure in the United States stems from tobacco smoke, and there can be a high risk for this indoors. Even glues, paints, detergents, and furniture wax can emit this chemical.

As for water supplies, benzene can seep into the water you drink. The EPA has said that safe drinking water will not have more than .005 milligrams of benzene per liter of water. Water contamination can happen where there is a leak from an underground site of hazardous waste or from some other underground storage. In fact, a 2005 explosion at a petroleum plant in China released 100,000 tons into a river, polluting the water source for millions of people. Around the same time, the FDA actually found potentially toxic amounts of benzene in some sodas and other drinks in the United States.

So what are the adverse health effects of benzene? If you have had a great deal of exposure to benzene at work, this could lead to cancer, namely leukemia. Benzene exposure has also been connected with aplastic anemia, a potentially fatal type of anemia. This exposure has also caused adverse reproductive effects, such as female infertility. If exposure to benzene is regular, this can wear down your immune system.

If you have had brief exposure, then you could become dizzy, suffer headaches, and feel an irregular heartbeat. You may even lose consciousness. If you consume food that has too much benzene, then you could become nauseous, convulse, or have a strange heartbeat. But if someone has been exposed to high levels of benzene, it can only take a short amount of exposure to cause death.

In recent years, lawsuits over benzene have been product liability claims, or lawsuits over an unsafe workplace. A product liability claim could stem from a dangerous product that involved benzene, and/or products where there were no warnings about this chemical's presence. Workers at plants where benzene is present have sued over the dangerous workplace, and/or the lack of protective measures and safety equipment. There are numerous other instances when injury or illness caused by some form of benzene exposure can lead to a personal injury claim. Find out your legal rights to compensation for benzene exposure when you contact an experienced personal injury attorney.