Benzene emissions from gas station clusters: a new framework for estimating lifetime cancer risk

During gas station operation, unburned fuel can be released to the environment through distribution, delivery, and storage. Due to the toxicity of fuel compounds, setback distances have been implemented to protect the general population. However, these distances treat gasoline sales volume as a categorical variable and only account for the presence of a single gas station and not clusters, which frequently occur. This paper introduces a framework for recommending setback distances for gas station clusters based on estimated lifetime cancer risk from benzene exposure.

Using the air quality dispersion model AERMOD, we simulated levels of benzene released to the atmosphere from single and clusters of generic gas stations and the associated lifetime cancer risk under meteorological conditions representative of Albany, New York.

Cancer risk as a function of distance from gas station(s) and as a continuous function of total sales volume can be estimated from an equation we developed. We found that clusters of gas stations have increased cancer risk compared to a single station because of cumulative emissions from the individual gas stations. For instance, the cancer risk at 40 m for four gas stations each dispensing 1 million gal/year is 9.84 × 10^-6 compared to 2.45 × 10^-6 for one gas station.

The framework we developed for estimating cancer risk from gas station(s) could be adopted by regulatory agencies to make setback distances a function of sales volume and the number of gas stations in a cluster, rather than on a sales volume category.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40201-020-00601-w.