Commentary on "Penetration of benzene, toluene and xylenes contained in gasolines through human abdominal skin in vitro".

In this commentary we refer to the new data recently published by Adami et al. [Adami, G., Larese, F., Venier, M., Barbieri, P., Lo Coco, F., Reisenhofer, E., 2006. Penetration of benzene, toluene and xylenes contained in gasolines through human abdominal skin in vitro. Toxicol. In Vitro 20, 1321-1330], which we acknowledge as a reliable basis for the retrospective assessment of percutaneous benzene absorption at the workplace. The data from Adami et al. (2006) are supported by the literature and by a German approach for calculating the contribution of the dermal uptake of benzene to the total body burden. This knowledge is important for the judgment of leukaemia suspected to be an occupational disease.