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Health Hazards

1. Why is Polystyrene so popular? – It is an excellent insulator
   
2. What is it made from?
   
   • Benzene – extracted from coal; used to transform styrene to polystyrence; also found in vehicle exhaust
     
   • Styrence – clear oily liquid; cracked from petroleum
     
   • Ethylene – present in almost every plant, encourages growth; used as a refrigerant; blowing agent
     
   • Blowing agents – used to make polystyrene (a hard, brittle plastic) 30 times lighter (to become Styrofoam, a trade name)

• benzene
  
  • Most toxic chemical in Styrofoam
    
  • Know mutagen, carcinogen, flammable
    
• Styrene
  
  • Very toxic at high levels; already in our fatty tissues
    
  • Mutagen, flammable, reactive, neurotoxin
    
  • Possible chemical migration to humans (but evidence inconclusive)
    
• Ethylene
  
  • Not know toxin; but flammable
    

3. Who are most at risk?
   
• Workers; people living near manufacturing plants; incinerators.
4. How might I be exposed to styrene?
   
   • Breathing indoor air that is contaminated with styrene vapors from building materials, consumer products, and tobacco smoke.
     
   • Breathing contaminated workplace air.
     
   • Drinking contaminated water.
     
   • Living near industrial facilities or hazardous waste sites.
     
   • Smoking cigarettes or eating a lot of food packaged in polystyrene containers.
5. How likely is styrene to cause cancer?
   
   • The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that styrene is possibly carcinogenic to humans.
6. How can styrene affect my health?
   • If you breathe high levels of styrene for a short time, you’re most likely to experience nervous system effects such as
     Depression, concentration problems, muscle weakness, tiredness, and nausea, and possibly eye, nose, and throat irritation.
7. When animals breathe styrene vapors in short-term studies the lining of their noses are demaged. Long-term exposure damages their liver, but there is no evidence that this will occur in people because there is no information on human health effects of breathing low levels for a long time.
8. Animal studies show that ingestion of high levels of styrene over several weeks can cause damage to the liver, hidneys, brain, and lungs. When styrene was applied to the skin of rabbits, it caused irritation.