National and sub-national estimation of benzene emission trend into atmosphere in Iran from 1990 to 2013

Exposure to benzene has been associated with a range of acute and long-term adverse health effects. We aimed to estimate national and provincial level of benzene emissions from 1990 to 2013 in Iran.

Benzene emission was estimated through two main sources: unburned benzene content of fuel and evaporated benzene. Unburned benzene content of fuel estimated by gasoline consumption rate, kilometers traveled by non-diesel-based cars, and benzene emission factor. Evaporated benzene estimated by evaporated gasoline and volumetric percentile of benzene.

The estimated provincial annual mean benzene estimation range was between 5.9 (ton) and 1590 (ton) from 1990 to 2013. Our results showed that maximum benzene emission over the past 24 years occurred in Tehran, (Mean± SD) (1147.2±308.5) (ton)), Isfahan (423.4±132) (ton)), Khorasan Razavi (410.4±122.2) (ton)) provinces, respectively. There was an upward trend in the benzene emission into atmosphere at national and subnational level from 1990 to 2007. Also a significant decrease trend is observed from 2008 to 2013.

The findings of this study will provide an insight into the extent of emitted benzene in the atmosphere at different regions of Iran for policy makers and scientists and may be a groundwork for field studies on benzene concentration estimation.