Biological and Health Effects of Exposure to Kerosene-Based Jet Fuels and Performance Additives
Abstract
Over 2 million military and civilian personnel per year (over 1 million in the United States) are occupationally exposed, respectively, to jet propulsion fuel-8 ( JP-8), JP-8 + 100 or JP-5, or to the civil aviation equivalents Jet A or Jet A-1. Approximately 60 billion gallons of these kerosene- based jet fuels are annually consumed worldwide (26 billion gallons in the United States), including over 5 billion gallons of JP-8 by the militaries of the United States and other NATO countries. JP-8, for example, represents the largest single chemical exposure in the U.S. military (2.53 billion gallons in 2000), while Jet A and A-1 are among the most common sources of nonmilitary occupational chemical exposure. Although more recent figures were not available, approximately 4.06 billion gallons of kerosene per se were consumed in the United States in 1990 (IARC, 1992). These exposures may occur repeatedly to raw fuel, vapor phase, aerosol phase, or fuel combustion exhaust by dermal absorption, pulmonary inhalation, or oral ingestion routes. Additionally, the public may be repeatedly exposed to lower levels of jet fuel vapor/aerosol or to fuel combustion products through atmospheric contamination, or to raw fuel constituents by contact with contaminated groundwater or soil. Kerosene-based hydrocarbon fuels are complex mixtures of up to 260+ aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (C6-C17+ possibly 2000+ isomeric forms), including varying concentrations of potential toxicants such as benzene, n-hexane, toluene, xylenes, trimethylpentane, methoxyethanol, naphthalenes (including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs], and certain other C9-C12 fractions (i.e., n-propylbenzene, trimethylbenzene isomers). While hydrocarbon fuel exposures occur typically at concentrations below current permissible exposure limits (PELs) for the parent fuel or its constituent chemicals it is unknown whether additive or synergistic interactions among hydrocarbon constituents.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA560252
Entities
People
- Andrew J. Bobb
- Darryl P. Arfsten
- Glenn D. Ritchie
- John Rossi Iii.
- Kenneth R. Still
- Marni Y. Bekkedal
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center