Abstract
Sex-related biological differences might lead to different effects in women and men when they are exposed to risk factors. A scoping review was carried out to understand if sex could be a discriminant in health outcomes due to benzene. Studies on both animals and humans were collected. In vivo surveys, focusing on genotoxicity, hematotoxicity and effects on metabolism suggested a higher involvement of male animals (mice or rats) in adverse health effects. Conversely, the studies on humans, focused on the alteration of blood parameters, myeloid leukemia incidence and biomarker rates, highlighted that, overall, women had significantly higher risk for blood system effects and a metabolization of benzene 23–26% higher than men, considering a similar exposure situation. This opposite trend highlights that the extrapolation of in vivo findings to human risk assessment should be taken with caution. However, it is clear that sex is a physiological parameter to consider in benzene exposure and its health effects. The topic of sex difference linked to benzene in human exposure needs further research, with more numerous samples, to obtain a higher strength of data and more indicative findings. Sex factor, and gender, could have significant impacts on occupational exposures and their health effects, even if there are still uncertainties and gaps that need to be filled.
Highlights
Sex-related biological differences might lead to different effects in women and men when exposed to risk factors [3,4,5,6]
The findings that emerged from experimental studies and from human epidemiological surveys were collected and summarized in the following paragraphs
When talking about occupational exposure to chemicals, sex is without doubt a parameter of certain influence, in term of toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic effects of the toxins in the male or female body
Summary
The consideration of sex and gender as parameters linked with different health outcomes is a mandatory challenge in all the different specializations of modern medicine [1]. Sex-related biological differences might lead to different effects in women and men when exposed to risk factors [3,4,5,6]. The issue of sex and gender was introduced in work-related wellbeing in 1995 in the World Conference of Beijing, and in 1999 the International Labour Office [9] took it up. Recent research [6,10,11] showed that male workers were exposed to more chemicals and physical exertion than females; for many of these occupations, the presence of women was not irrelevant. Women had a predominance of activity with repetitiveness and rapidity [10], in addition to specific
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