Gasoline risk management: a compendium of regulations, standards, and industry practices.

This paper is part of a special series of publications regarding gasoline toxicology testing and gasoline risk management; this article covers regulations, standards, and industry practices concerning gasoline risk management. Gasoline is one of the highest volume liquid fuel products produced globally. In the U.S., gasoline production in 2013 was the highest on record (API, 2013). Regulations such as those pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA) (Clean Air Act, 2012: § 7401, et seq.) and many others provide the U.S. federal government with extensive authority to regulate gasoline composition, manufacture, storage, transportation and distribution practices, worker and consumer exposure, product labeling, and emissions from engines and other sources designed to operate on this fuel. The entire gasoline lifecycle-from manufacture, through distribution, to end-use-is subject to detailed, complex, and overlapping regulatory schemes intended to protect human health, welfare, and the environment. In addition to these legal requirements, industry has implemented a broad array of voluntary standards and best management practices to ensure that risks from gasoline manufacturing, distribution, and use are minimized.

Gasoline toxicology: overview of regulatory and product stewardship programs.

Significant efforts have been made to characterize the toxicological properties of gasoline. There have been both mandatory and voluntary toxicology testing programs to generate hazard characterization data for gasoline, the refinery process streams used to blend gasoline, and individual chemical constituents found in gasoline. The Clean Air Act (CAA) (Clean Air Act, 2012: § 7401, et seq.) is the primary tool for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate gasoline and this supplement presents the results of the Section 211(b) Alternative Tier 2 studies required for CAA Fuel and Fuel Additive registration. Gasoline blending streams have also been evaluated by EPA under the voluntary High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program through which the petroleum industry provide data on over 80 refinery streams used in gasoline. Product stewardship efforts by companies and associations such as the American Petroleum Institute (API), Conservation of Clean Air and Water Europe (CONCAWE), and the Petroleum Product Stewardship Council (PPSC) have contributed a significant amount of hazard characterization data on gasoline and related substances. The hazard of gasoline and anticipated exposure to gasoline vapor has been well characterized for risk assessment purposes.

Review of the toxicology of mineral spirits.

This review of the toxicology of mineral spirits covers studies of the major classes of mineral spirits and several toxicologically important mineral spirit constituents. This review cites data from numerous previously unpublished animal toxicology studies conducted on mineral spirits during the past 30 years, expanding the existing database on the toxicology of this group of hydrocarbon solvents. The data can be used to better evaluate the potential effects associated with exposure to these materials, including health and environmental reviews such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency High Production Volume (HPV) chemical program and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) HPV Screening Information Data Set (SIDS) program. The majority of animal toxicology studies in the available literature were conducted on mineral spirits categorized as ASTM D235 Type I Class A (149 degrees C to 213 degrees C boiling range; 8% to 22% aromatics) and demonstrate that Type I Class A mineral spirits have a low order of acute toxicity and do not produce significant systemic effects. Some additional studies conducted with ASTM D235 Type II Class C mineral spirits (177 degrees C to 213 degrees C boiling range; < 2% aromatics) suggest that Type II Class C mineral spirits have similar toxicity to Type I Class A mineral spirits, though there is some evidence that Type II, Class C mineral spirits have a lesser degree of central nervous system (CNS) effects than the higher aromatic containing Type I Class A materials. In addition, toxicity data on selected chemical constituents of mineral spirits (e.g., n-nonane, n-decane, n-undecane) indicate that these chemicals have similar toxicological properties to mineral spirits. Overall, the data showed that mineral spirits have a low order of acute toxicity and do not appear to produce toxicologically relevant systemic effects. Ongoing studies are evaluating the concerns associated with chronic low-level exposure and central nervous system effects.