[Update on benzene: from industrial toxicant to environmental carcinogen]

Benzene, an industrial chemical myelotoxic at high doses in workers, is now an almost ubiquitous pollutant. It is also a no-threshold genotoxic carcinogen causing acute leukemia and other lymphoaematological tumours. Although its mechanism of action has not been fully clarified, benzene toxicity and carcinogenicity depend on metabolic activation. Polymorphism of activating and detoxifying enzymes (CYP, GST, NQO1) may be critical, therefore, in modulating individual susceptibility to benzene. Further uncertainty factors in assessing low level benzene exposure are the limited sensitivity and specificity of most exposure biomarkers, the frequent coexposure to other volatile organic chemicals (VOC), and the presence of non occupational sources of exposure, such as cigarette smoke and veicular traffic. The aim of this presentation is to introduce the main current critical issues in the risk assessment and the biological monitoring of occupational exposure to benzene at low doses.