BTEX

Sources of exposure:

Industrial uses

Cleaning products and household care

Gasoline, vehicle exhaust, fuel vapors, tobacco smoke, indoor and outdoor air, paints, adhesives, solvents, contaminated drinking water

Description:

BTEX refers to a group of four volatile aromatic hydrocarbons: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes. These compounds occur naturally in crude oil and petroleum products and are commonly associated with gasoline, vehicle emissions, fuel storage, and industrial solvents. They are also used in the manufacture of paints, coatings, adhesives, plastics, and other chemical products. Because BTEX compounds readily evaporate, inhalation of contaminated indoor or outdoor air is an important exposure pathway. Exposure may also occur through contaminated drinking water, particularly near fuel spills, leaking underground storage tanks, or industrial sites. BTEX compounds differ in their chemical properties, environmental behavior, and health effects and should not be treated as a single substance for hazard assessment. BTEX compounds are subject to various environmental regulations addressing air emissions and drinking water contamination. In the United States, these include the Clean Air Act's National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) and EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for drinking water. In the European Union, benzene is regulated under ambient air quality and drinking water legislation, including Directive 2008/50/EC (to be replaced by Directive (EU) 2024/2881 in December 2026) and Directive (EU) 2020/2184. Industrial emissions may also be subject to Directive 2010/75/EU. These requirements apply to individual BTEX constituents or specific emission sources rather than BTEX as a single regulated mixture.

Health concerns:

No specific health concerns have been flagged for this chemical.

HOW MILLION MARKER SCORES CHEMICALS

Million Marker's Ingredient Hazard Scoring uses multiple chemical databases and a science-backed scoring system to compute hazard scores for thousands of chemicals found in consumer products and listed on ingredient labels.

We identified key chemicals based on a database compiling dozens of authoritative sources, screening tools, and QSAR models.

Hazard scores within 11 different health categories (carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, reproductive toxicants, developmental toxicants, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, organ system toxicity, immunotoxicity, respiratory toxicity, skin/eye/respiratory irritants, and ecotoxicity).

They are weighted based on several factors, including strength of evidence for adverse impacts in humans, severity, and potential contamination.