Gasoline risk management: A compendium of regulations, standards, and industry practices

Ecotoxicological effects, human and animal health risks of pollution and exposure to waste engine oils: a review

Waste engine oils are hazardous waste oils originating from the transportation sector and industrial heavy-duty machinery operations. Improper handling, disposal, and miscellaneous misuses cause significant air, soil, sediments, surface water, and groundwater pollution. Occupational exposure by prolonged and repeated contact poses direct or indirect health risks, resulting in short-term (acute) or long-term (chronic) toxicities. Soil pollution causes geotoxicity by disrupting the biocenosis and physicochemical properties of the soil, and phytotoxicity by impairing plant growth, physiology and metabolism. Surface water pollution impacts aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity. Air pollution from incineration causes the release of greenhouse gases creating global warming, noxious gases and particulate matter eliciting pulmonary disorders. The toxicity of waste engine oil is due to the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) composition, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene (BTEX), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) congeners, organometallic compounds, and toxic chemical additives. The paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the ecotoxicological effects, human and animal health toxicology and exposure to waste engine oils. It highlights the properties and functions of engine oil and describes waste engine oil generation, disposal and recycling. It provides intensive evaluations and descriptions of the toxicokinetics, metabolism, routes of exposure and toxicosis in human and animal studies based on toxicological, epidemiological and experimental studies. It emphasises the preventive measures in occupational exposure and recommends risk-based remediation techniques to mitigate environmental pollution. The review will assist in understanding the potential risks of waste engine oil with significant consideration of the public health benefits and importance.

Current frameworks for environmental and health assessment of hydrocarbon streams and products are flexible and ready for alternative non crude oil-based feeds

Hazard and risk assessment of complex petroleum-derived substances has been in a state of continuous improvement since the 1970s, with the development of approaches that continue to be applied and refined. Alternative feeds are defined here as those coming into a refinery or chemical plant that are not hydrocarbons from oil and gas extraction such as biologically derived oils, pyrolysis oil from biomass or other, and recycled materials. These feeds are increasingly being used for production of liquid hydrocarbon streams, and hence, there is a need to assess these alternatives, subsequent manufacturing and refining processes and end products for potential risk to humans and the environment. Here we propose a tiered, problem formulation-driven framework for assessing the safety of hydrocarbon streams and products derived from alternative feedstocks in use. The scope of this work is only focused on petrochemical safety assessment, though the principles may be applicable to other chemistries. The framework integrates combinations of analytical chemistry, in silico and in vitro tools, and targeted testing together with conservative assumptions/approaches to leverage existing health, environmental, and exposure data, where applicable. The framework enables the identification of scenarios where de novo hazard and/or exposure assessments may be needed and incorporates tiered approaches to do so. It can be applied to enable decisions efficiently and transparently and can encompass a wide range of compositional space in both feedstocks and finished products, with the objective of ensuring safety in manufacturing and use.

Gasoline-related injuries and fatalities in the United States, 1995-2014

This descriptive study examines twenty years of gasoline-related fatalities and emergency department treated injuries in the United States, based on data from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Thermal burns consistently accounted for the majority (56%) of gasoline-related injuries and for most (82%) gasoline-related deaths, and were commonly (57-71%) associated with the use of gasoline as an accelerant. Poisoning accounted for 13% of injuries and 17% of deaths. The primary poisoning injury pattern was ingestion; the primary fatality pattern was inhalation, with about half of those associated with deliberate abuse. The estimated number of ingestions decreased from 60 to 23% of poisoning-related injuries, while injuries associated with inhalation abuse increased from 6 to 23%. Chemical burns and dermatitis were less represented in the injury data and were primarily associated with gasoline spills or splashes. Gasoline cans reportedly ignited or exploded in about 5% of thermal burn injuries and fatalities. While mandatory requirements for child resistant closures on gasoline cans (a primary intervention) have potentially impacted poisonings, the use of flame mitigation devices to address thermal injuries, if successful, would be a secondary intervention, and could address only a small percentage (about 5%) of injuries and deaths.

Evaluating the Effects of Aromatics Content in Gasoline on Gaseous and Particulate Matter Emissions from SI-PFI and SIDI Vehicles

We assessed the emissions response of a fleet of seven light-duty gasoline vehicles for gasoline fuel aromatic content while operating over the LA92 driving cycle. The test fleet consisted of model year 2012 vehicles equipped with spark-ignition (SI) and either port fuel injection (PFI) or direct injection (DI) technology. Three gasoline fuels were blended to meet a range of total aromatics targets (15%, 25%, and 35% by volume) while holding other fuel properties relatively constant within specified ranges, and a fourth fuel was formulated to meet a 35% by volume total aromatics target but with a higher octane number. Our results showed statistically significant increases in carbon monoxide, nonmethane hydrocarbon, particulate matter (PM) mass, particle number, and black carbon emissions with increasing aromatics content for all seven vehicles tested. Only one vehicle showed a statistically significant increase in total hydrocarbon emissions. The monoaromatic hydrocarbon species that were evaluated showed increases with increasing aromatic content in the fuel. Changes in fuel composition had no statistically significant effect on the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), formaldehyde, or acetaldehyde. A good correlation was also found between the PM index and PM mass and number emissions for all vehicle/fuel combinations with the total aromatics group being a significant contributor to the total PM index followed by naphthalenes and indenes.

Gasoline toxicology: overview of regulatory and product stewardship programs

Significant efforts have been made to characterize the toxicological properties of gasoline. There have been both mandatory and voluntary toxicology testing programs to generate hazard characterization data for gasoline, the refinery process streams used to blend gasoline, and individual chemical constituents found in gasoline. The Clean Air Act (CAA) (Clean Air Act, 2012: § 7401, et seq.) is the primary tool for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate gasoline and this supplement presents the results of the Section 211(b) Alternative Tier 2 studies required for CAA Fuel and Fuel Additive registration. Gasoline blending streams have also been evaluated by EPA under the voluntary High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program through which the petroleum industry provide data on over 80 refinery streams used in gasoline. Product stewardship efforts by companies and associations such as the American Petroleum Institute (API), Conservation of Clean Air and Water Europe (CONCAWE), and the Petroleum Product Stewardship Council (PPSC) have contributed a significant amount of hazard characterization data on gasoline and related substances. The hazard of gasoline and anticipated exposure to gasoline vapor has been well characterized for risk assessment purposes.