Styrene enables manufactured products to deliver highly sought after benefits, including strength, durability, comfort and safety.
Common uses of styrene include:
- Rigid food and drink storage containers
- Appliance housings
- Automobile body parts

Styrene enables manufactured products to deliver highly sought after benefits, including strength, durability, comfort and safety.
Common uses of styrene include:
- Rigid food and drink storage containers
- Appliance housings
- Automobile body parts
- Wind turbine parts
- Medical Equipment
- Synthetic Rubber
- Paints and Inks
Other styrene-based materials include:
- ABS Plastic
- SAN Plastic
- SB Rubber (SBR)
- SB Latex (SBL)
Because of these benefits, the demand for styrene continues to grow.
Occupational exposure to styrene mainly occurs in the reinforced plastics and polystyrene industries.
The most common exposure to styrene is through inhalation of fumes and vapor in the work place air.
Styrene has been found in over 15% of 1,699 National Priorities List sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is a list of national priorities among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout theUnited States.
Just how harmful is styrene fume?
During the production of styrene-based materials, hazardous styrene fume and vapor may emit and enter the operator’s breathing zone.
Multiple research and regulating authorities have classified styrene as a possible, or reasonably anticipated, human carcinogen.
|International Agency for Research on Cancer||2B; Possibly carcinogenic to humans|
|US Department of Health and Human Services, National Toxicology Program||