Diesel engine exhaust raises lung cancer risk
People with Long-term exposure to even low levels of diesel engine exhaust have a higher risk of dying from lung cancer, US researchers say.
Diesel exhaust has long been tied to development of lung cancer but a new investigation about miners has revealed that even low levels of the pollutant may be highly dangerous.
The study followed more than 12,000 miners working in eight underground nonmetal mining facilities for about 20 years. The participants had high levels of exposure to pollutants emitted from diesel-powered equipments.
The findings showed that more the studied people breathed elemental carbon, used as a marker for exposure to diesel exhaust, the higher their risks of lung cancer death were.
Reportedly, the miners who had the highest exposure to the pollutants had three times the risk of death from lung cancer compared to peers with the lowest exposures.
The risk of lung cancer death was 50 percent more in workers with the lowest levels of exposure, said researchers of the US national Cancer Institute (NCI).
The alarming point is that levels of exhaust exposure of those miners were comparable to what is seen in the air quality of some urban centers around the world.
“Our findings are important not only for miners but also for the 1.4 million American workers and the 3 million European workers exposed to diesel exhaust, and for urban populations worldwide,” said Debra Silverman and colleagues.
Source: presstv.ir
