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Long-term exposure to ambient benzene and brain disorders among urban adults

Nature Cities volume 1, pages 830–841 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ambient benzene is a volatile anthropogenic pollutant and known carcinogen associated with industrialization and urbanization. Benzene is a natural constituent of petroleum, so cities, which concentrate combustion through industrial activity, transit and heating, generate a great deal. In addition to causing cancer, theory also predicts that benzene may chronically affect the human brain, even at a low level (<5 µg m−3). In this study, we estimated associations of ambient benzene exposure before 2010 with brain disorders (261,909 participants) and brain imaging phenotypes (23,911 participants) in urban residents in the UK (enrolled during 2006–2010 and followed up to 2022). The results show that ambient benzene (per interquartile range increment of 0.30 µg m−3) is associated with elevated risks of dementia (hazard ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence intervals, 1.09 to 1.28), major depression (1.09; 1.03 to 1.14) and anxiety disorder (1.16; 1.10 to 1.22). Neuroimaging analysis highlighted the associations with brain structures, including the thalamus and the superior temporal gyrus. This study provides population-level evidence of the effect of ambient benzene on brain disorders in urban populations, critical for risk assessments, air quality and health guidelines, and sustainable-development efforts as the world urbanizes.

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Fig. 1: Study workflow.
Fig. 2: Associations between ambient benzene exposure and incidence risk of brain disorders among urban residents.
Fig. 3: Associations between ambient benzene exposure and incidence risk of brain disorders stratified by status of peripheral inflammation and metS.
Fig. 4: Distribution of benzene concentrations over the UK and exposure–response relationships.
Fig. 5: Associations between long-term ambient benzene exposure and brain imaging phenotypes.
Fig. 6: Associations of brain imaging phenotypes with brain disorders and the results of SEM analysis.

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Data availability

The data used in the present study are available from the UK Biobank with restrictions applied. Access to the UK Biobank data can be requested by means of a standard protocol (https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/register-apply/). This research was conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under application no. 99001. The data on ambient benzene exposure concentration used in this study were provided by DEFRA and can be obtained at https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/pcm-data.

Code availability

The main codes used in this study are available on GitHub at https://github.com/Rlab2020/BZandBH.git. Other codes for the statistical analysis are available upon request from J. Ran.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82304102, J.R.), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (grant no. 23ZR1436200, J.R.) and the Shanghai Science and Technology Development Foundation (grant no. 22YF1421100, J.R.). We also thank the UK Biobank participants and the UK Biobank team for their work in collecting, processing and disseminating the data.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Yongxuan Li, Yujia Bao.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Yongxuan Li, Yujia Bao, Yanqiu Zhou, Jingqi Zhou, Xiaobei Deng & Jinjun Ran

  2. School of Global Health, Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Ne Qiang & Lefei Han

  3. Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Min Zhong & Yuanyuan Li

  4. School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Zheshen Han

  5. MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Chen Shen

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Contributions

J.R. and L.H. had full access to all of the data in this study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. J.R. and L.H. conceived and designed the project. Y.-X.L., Y.B. and J.R. acquired, analyzed or interpreted data. Y.B., Y.-X.L. and N.Q. generated the figures. Y.-X.L., Y.B., N.Q. and M.Z. wrote the initial draft of the paper. Z.H., Y.-Y.L., Y.Z., J.Z., X.D., C.S., L.H. and J.R. contributed to subsequent versions of the paper. J.R., L.H., C.S. and X.D. provided administrative, technical or material support. All of the authors have critically reviewed the paper, have a clear understanding of the content, results and conclusions of the study, and agreed to submit this paper for publication.

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Correspondence to Lefei Han or Jinjun Ran.

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Nature Cities thanks Kin-fai Ho and Paul Scheepers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Li, Y., Bao, Y., Qiang, N. et al. Long-term exposure to ambient benzene and brain disorders among urban adults. Nat Cities 1, 830–841 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00156-z

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