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landl0rd06/16/20253 repliesview on HN

You can get a little dose and it's likely not going to hurt you. "No safe dose" doesn't mean "any dose is massively injurious". You smell it regularly when you pump gasoline.

Funny enough benzene used to be used (a hundred years ago) for aftershave and even for douches. I don't even want to think about what that did to those people's bodies.


Replies

robocat06/16/2025

> You smell it regularly when you pump gasoline

The EPA limits the percentage of benzene allowed in gasoline to a yearly average of 0.62% by volume (with a maximum of 1.3%).

(Edit: replaced original sentence that was misleading)

gwbas1c06/16/2025

Apparently Lysol used to be used as douche. If you have a long drive, this is worth a listen: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-stuff-you-should-know-26...