Diesel fuel exhaust likely to cause cancer - US EPA
Date: 05-Sep-02
Country: USA
Green groups are seizing on the new report from the Environmental Protection Agency as proof the Bush administration needs to crack down on polluting diesel fuel emissions.
"This will underscore that diesel exhaust is a health hazard and should be controlled," said Frank O'Donnell at the Clean Air Trust, who called the report "the most in-depth health assessment to date" on diesel fumes.
Environmental groups are worried the Bush administration will roll back clean air regulations for diesel fuel.
The EPA in early 2001 issued standards to reduce diesel emissions from trucks and buses by more than 90 percent.
The administration said it backed those rules, but later said it might permit diesel engine makers to trade emission-reduction credits instead of producing cleaner trucks and buses.
The EPA is considering similar clean diesel standards for construction and farm equipment.
In addition to concluding that diesel fumes likely cause lung cancer, the EPA found diesel exhaust triggers asthma and other respiratory problems.
The agency said its report is based on exposure from diesel engines built prior to the mid 1990s. As new diesel engines with cleaner exhaust emissions replace existing engines, the report's conclusions will have to updated, it said.
