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Increased Lung Cancer Risk with Exposure to Diesel and Other Vehicle Exhaust

Jan 13, 2009 by TacticularCancer.com

According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), a long-term study has revealed that workers in the trucking industry who have been regularly exposed to diesel as well as other kinds of vehicle exhaust had heightened risk of getting lung cancer with more years of work.

The study was led by E. Garshick and published in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. It is titled “Lung Cancer and Vehicle Exhaust in Trucking Industry Workers” and examined lung cancer deaths from 1985 to 2000, according to job type in 31,135 Teamsters Union members.

The study team had used information from the National Death Index database and looked at men who were 39 years or older in 1985 and had worked for at least a year in the trucking industry. They found that the rate of lung cancer increased with time. Long-haul and pickup-and-delivery (P&D) drivers, dockworkers as well as people who worked in both the abovementioned jobs had higher risk, as compared to those who worked in other areas, such as clerks and mechanics.

Because they had no data on whether or not the study subjects were smokers, the study team adjusted its results for possible smoking habits by using a survey of active as well as retired workers from the trucking industry.

“We’ve known for more than a decade that exhaust from diesel trucks is dangerous. The more we study these emissions, the more dangerous it appears,” said CARB chairman Mary Nichols.

“This study simply shows that older outdated engines, which are no longer being produced, may have been more hazardous than those used today,” said ATA spokeswoman Tiffany Wlazlowski.

Source: Lung Cancer Risk Raised With Exposure to Diesel and Other Vehicle Exhaust at All 4 Natural Health News