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Natural gas odorants: A scoping review of health effects

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Organosulfur compounds are intentionally added to natural gas as malodorants with the intent of short-term nasal inhalation to aid in leak detection. Regulatory exposure limits have not been established for all commonly used natural gas odorants, and recent community-level exposur...

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Autores principales: Michanowicz, Drew R., Leventhal, Olivia M., Domen, Jeremy K., Williams, Samuel R., Lebel, Eric D., Hill, Lee Ann L., Buonocore, Jonathan J., Nordgaard, Curtis L., Bernstein, Aaron S., Shonkoff, Seth B.C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10504204/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37491689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40572-023-00403-w
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author Michanowicz, Drew R.
Leventhal, Olivia M.
Domen, Jeremy K.
Williams, Samuel R.
Lebel, Eric D.
Hill, Lee Ann L.
Buonocore, Jonathan J.
Nordgaard, Curtis L.
Bernstein, Aaron S.
Shonkoff, Seth B.C.
author_facet Michanowicz, Drew R.
Leventhal, Olivia M.
Domen, Jeremy K.
Williams, Samuel R.
Lebel, Eric D.
Hill, Lee Ann L.
Buonocore, Jonathan J.
Nordgaard, Curtis L.
Bernstein, Aaron S.
Shonkoff, Seth B.C.
author_sort Michanowicz, Drew R.
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Organosulfur compounds are intentionally added to natural gas as malodorants with the intent of short-term nasal inhalation to aid in leak detection. Regulatory exposure limits have not been established for all commonly used natural gas odorants, and recent community-level exposure events and growing evidence of indoor natural gas leakage have raised concerns associated with natural gas odorant exposures. We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed scientific publications on human exposures and animal toxicological studies of natural gas odorants to assess toxicological profiles, exposure potential, health effects and regulatory guidelines associated with commonly used natural gas odorants. RECENT FINDINGS: We identified only 22 studies which met inclusion criteria for full review. Overall, there is limited evidence of both transient nonspecific health symptoms and clinically diagnosed causative neurotoxic effects associated with prolonged odorant exposures. Across seven community-level exposure events and two occupational case reports, consistent symptom patterns included: headache, ocular irritation, nose and throat irritation, respiratory complaints such as shortness of breath and asthma attacks, and skin irritation and rash. Of these, respiratory inflammation and asthma exacerbations are the most debilitating, whereas the high prevalence of ocular and dermatologic symptoms suggest a non-inhalation route of exposure. SUMMARY: The limited evidence available raises the possibility that organosulfur odorants may pose health risks at exposures much lower than presently understood, though additional dose-response studies are needed to disentangle specific toxicologic effects from nonspecific responses to noxious organosulfur odors. Numerous recommendations are provided including more transparent and prescriptive natural gas odorant use practices. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40572-023-00403-w.
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spelling pubmed-105042042023-09-17 Natural gas odorants: A scoping review of health effects Michanowicz, Drew R. Leventhal, Olivia M. Domen, Jeremy K. Williams, Samuel R. Lebel, Eric D. Hill, Lee Ann L. Buonocore, Jonathan J. Nordgaard, Curtis L. Bernstein, Aaron S. Shonkoff, Seth B.C. Curr Environ Health Rep Article PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Organosulfur compounds are intentionally added to natural gas as malodorants with the intent of short-term nasal inhalation to aid in leak detection. Regulatory exposure limits have not been established for all commonly used natural gas odorants, and recent community-level exposure events and growing evidence of indoor natural gas leakage have raised concerns associated with natural gas odorant exposures. We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed scientific publications on human exposures and animal toxicological studies of natural gas odorants to assess toxicological profiles, exposure potential, health effects and regulatory guidelines associated with commonly used natural gas odorants. RECENT FINDINGS: We identified only 22 studies which met inclusion criteria for full review. Overall, there is limited evidence of both transient nonspecific health symptoms and clinically diagnosed causative neurotoxic effects associated with prolonged odorant exposures. Across seven community-level exposure events and two occupational case reports, consistent symptom patterns included: headache, ocular irritation, nose and throat irritation, respiratory complaints such as shortness of breath and asthma attacks, and skin irritation and rash. Of these, respiratory inflammation and asthma exacerbations are the most debilitating, whereas the high prevalence of ocular and dermatologic symptoms suggest a non-inhalation route of exposure. SUMMARY: The limited evidence available raises the possibility that organosulfur odorants may pose health risks at exposures much lower than presently understood, though additional dose-response studies are needed to disentangle specific toxicologic effects from nonspecific responses to noxious organosulfur odors. Numerous recommendations are provided including more transparent and prescriptive natural gas odorant use practices. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40572-023-00403-w. Springer International Publishing 2023-07-25 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10504204/ /pubmed/37491689 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40572-023-00403-w Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Michanowicz, Drew R.
Leventhal, Olivia M.
Domen, Jeremy K.
Williams, Samuel R.
Lebel, Eric D.
Hill, Lee Ann L.
Buonocore, Jonathan J.
Nordgaard, Curtis L.
Bernstein, Aaron S.
Shonkoff, Seth B.C.
Natural gas odorants: A scoping review of health effects
title Natural gas odorants: A scoping review of health effects
title_full Natural gas odorants: A scoping review of health effects
title_fullStr Natural gas odorants: A scoping review of health effects
title_full_unstemmed Natural gas odorants: A scoping review of health effects
title_short Natural gas odorants: A scoping review of health effects
title_sort natural gas odorants: a scoping review of health effects
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10504204/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37491689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40572-023-00403-w
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