Investigation on occupational hazards in gas stations and health status of workers in Zhengzhou City

Objective To understand the present situation of occupational hazards in gas stations in Zhengzhou and the health status of workers there.

Method Totally 156 gas stations were investigated and 320 workers received occupational health examination.

Results The major hazards included gasoline, benzene, toluene and xylene in the gas stations. Personal sampling showed that exposure level of the tankers was higher than that of the calibration operators, while area sampling showed the concentration of these chemicals at petrol pump areas was significantly higher than that in the office rooms(P < 0.01 or 0.05), but the exposure level of the workers was lower than the national occupational health standard. Health examination results showed that 6.3% workers reported symptoms of neurasthenia, while abnormality of blood routine examination, urine routine examination, ECG examination, blood pressure, liver function or ultrasound examination and skin examination was 16.3%, 10.0%, 9.1%, 6.3%, 12.2%, and 11.9%, respectively. It seemed the workers with employed time more than 10 years had a relatively higher abnormality(P < 0.05).

Conclusion Though the exposure level to occupational hazards in the gas stations was lower than national standards, the workers may still have some health problem. The management on occupational health work should be improved in the gas stations.