Diesel Fumes a Cause of Cancer

A new report has put diesel exhaust fumes in the same deadly category as asbestos, arsenic and mustard gas. According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report diesel fumes are a cause of lung cancer. Diesel exhausts have been reclassified from group 2A of probable carcinogens to its group 1 of substances that have definite links to cancer.

The experts, who said their decision was unanimous and based on “compelling” scientific evidence, urged people worldwide to reduce their exposure to diesel fumes as much as possible

WHO have warned that large populations are exposed to a toxic mixture of diesel fume derived chemicals every day. People are exposed not only to motor vehicle exhausts but also to exhausts from other diesel engines.In Australia the mining and resource industry is a major consumer of diesel and in turn a key source of fumes.

In March 2012, a US reprot into the mining sector found that the most heavily exposed miners to diesel exhaust had three times the risk of death from lung cancer compared to workers with the lowest exposures.

In 1999, about 3 millions workers from 19 European countries were exposed to diesel engine exhaust, according to CAREX, a database which contains estimates of the numbers of workers occupationally exposed to carcinogens in Europe