Epidemiologic evidence suggests that the adverse health effects attributable to diesel exhaust and traffic exposures include lung cancer, worsening of chronic respiratory disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, progression of cardiovascular disease, abnormal children's lung growth, and adverse birth outcomes.  Most recently, in June 2012, a Working Group met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC; Lyon, France) to review the carcinogenicity of diesel engine exhaust.  The most influential epidemiological studies assessing cancer risks associated with diesel-engine exhausts investigated occupational exposure among railroad workers, workers in the trucking industry, and  non-metal miners.  The assessment of lung cancer risk in trucking industry workers and in non-metal miners included the finding of a positive exposure-response relationship with occupational elemental carbon exposure. This presentation will review the epidemiologic studies that supported the conclusion of the Working Group that diesel engine exhaust is carcinogenic to humans (IARC Group 1) and key studies providing evidence of non-malignant health effects of traffic related exposures.

Human health effects of diesel exhaust and traffic exposures

246th National Meeting (2013)

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