Fuel Specialist: Toxic Exposure and VA Claims

Benzene is present in gasoline and in wide-cut jet fuels such as JP-4, which the Air Force used as an aircraft fuel for decades before moving to kerosene-based JP-8. The Department of Health and Human Services and the EPA classify benzene as a known human carcinogen. Fuel specialists inhaled benzene vapor while refueling, gauging open tanks, drawing fuel samples, and cleaning up spills, and absorbed it through the skin when fuel splashed onto hands, arms, and clothing. Vapor concentrations ran highest in enclosed spaces such as shipboard pump rooms, tank interiors, and fuel testing laboratories, exactly where this job worked.

Kerosene-based JP-5 (Navy) and JP-8 (Air Force and Army), and the earlier wide-cut JP-4, are complex mixtures of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. ATSDR notes that exposure to these fuels occurs mainly in occupational settings and that workers refueling aircraft face particular risk when protective clothing is not worn. Fuel handlers breathed vapor during fueling and defueling operations and had repeated skin contact from splashes, soaked gloves, and fuel-wet uniforms. Studies of military personnel suggest JP-8 exposure may affect the nervous system, and animal studies point to liver, immune system, and skin effects.

Before unleaded formulations became standard, military motor gasoline and aviation gasoline for piston-engine aircraft contained tetraethyl lead as an octane booster, and lead is also listed among the components of JP-4. Fuel specialists of earlier eras pumped, sampled, and cleaned up these leaded fuels in bulk. ATSDR reports that lead exposure in adults can damage the nervous system and kidneys, cause anemia, and raise blood pressure, and that lead is classified as a probable human carcinogen. Veterans who fueled piston aircraft, handled avgas, or cleaned tanks that stored leaded gasoline had the most contact.

Beginning in the 1970s, the Department of Defense used aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains PFAS chemicals, to fight fuel fires. Fuel farms, hydrant systems, hangars, and carrier flight decks and pump rooms were protected by AFFF suppression systems, and fuel specialists trained for and responded to fuel spills and fires where foam was discharged. AFFF releases also contaminated groundwater at hundreds of installations where fuel handlers lived and worked. VA states there are currently no presumptions related to PFAS exposure; see the AFFF page for details on the ongoing scientific review.