Objective  To assess occupational health risk of benzene exposure among enterprise workers and to explore health risk assessment models for occupational benzene exposure in workplace.

  Methods  Benzene exposure monitoring at workplaces and occupational health survey among exposed workers were carried out in a furniture factory and a transformer factory in Shandong province between April and June 2017. The health risk of occupational benzene exposure for each work site was evaluated and graded with the Singapore semi-quantitative risk assessment model and the occupational hazard risk assessment index method.

  Results  The assessment based on Singapore semi-quantitative risk model indicated that in the furniture factory the two paint spraying sites in a primer workshop were classified as with high risk level (risk value of 4.4), and all work sites in the finish paint workshop were with moderate risk; in the transformer factory the work site for clamps' paint spraying in the large size workpiece manufacturing workshop was graded with extremely high risk (risk value of 5.0) and the work sites of oil removal and paint spraying in the metal component workshop were with the high risk level (risk value of 3.9 and 4.4). The assessment according to occupational hazard risk index method demonstrated that in the transformer factory all work sites of primer workshop and finish paint workshop were classified as with high health risk; in the transformer factory, the worksites of oil removal and paint spraying in the large size workpiece manufacturing workshop were with extremely high risk level (mean risk value of greater than 80) and the work sites of paint spraying in the metal component workshop were with the high risk level.

  Conclusion  Several work sites in the furniture factory and transformer factory were assessed with high health risk associated with benzene exposure and the assessment based on occupational hazard risk index method can result in more objective estimation.