Lowest observed adverse effect levels (LOAELs) in humans occupationally exposed to benzene
| Effect | Description | Exposure | LOAEL | Reference | ||
| Acute toxicity: | ||||||
| Death | Minutes | 64000 mg/m3 | Thienes and Haley (1972)82 | |||
| Death (oral1-150) | 10 ml (8.8 g) | Thienes and Haley (1972)82 | ||||
| CNS | Vertigo, drowsiness, headache, nausea | Hours | 800 mg/m3 | Clayton and Clayton (1994)22 | ||
| Chronic toxicity: | ||||||
| Haematological | Aplastic anaemia, pancytopenia | Years | 320 mg/m3 | Yinet al (1987)83 | ||
| Greenberg et al(1939)84 | ||||||
| Myelodysplastic syndrome | Aksoyet al (1972)85 | |||||
| Cytopenia | Years | 96–112 mg/m3 | Fishbecket al (1978)23 | |||
| Kipenet al (1989)24 | ||||||
| Rothman et al(1996)25 | ||||||
| Mutagenic | Chromosomal aberrations | Years | 64–319 mg/m3 | EBS (1996)13 | ||
| Adduct formation | Years | 40–200 mg/m3 | Liu et al(1996)26 | |||
| Carcinogenic | ANLL | Years | 32–80 mg/m3 | Schnatter et al(1996)48 | ||
| Hayes et al (1997)51 | ||||||
ANLL=acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia; CNS=central nervous system.
↵1-150 Only effect after oral consumption, all others resulting from inhalation.