Risk assessment: conventional diesel exhaust and lung cancer

Details

• Personal Author:
  Park R ; Park R
• Description:
  Studies in railroad workers, truck drivers, and miners reveal diesel exhaust to be carcinogenic. Although technology has evolved, a large capacity in the U.S and globally still comprises traditional diesel engine design in transportation, mining, construction and farming. The Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study (DEMS) with an extensive exposure assessment investigated 200 lung cancer deaths in non-coal and non-metal miners. A DEMS dataset was used to calculate the excess lifetime risk for airborne concentrations of respirable elemental carbon (REC). A healthy worker survivor effect and possible confounding by non-diesel power generation and other mining exposures (e.g., explosives) were investigated along with dose-rate effects using Poisson regression methods with high-resolution classification. Lung cancer mortality declined with employment duration and more so when REC and non diesel exposure effects were also estimated, revealing a strong survivor bias. Attenuation of the REC effect was also observed with increasing (lagged) cumulative REC exposure. In underground miners, the excess relative rate of lung cancer mortality was 0.67 (p < 0.0001) for a 10 year exposure to 200 mg/m3 REC, a typical underground exposure. At occupational REC exposures of 200, 10 and 1 mg/m3 the excess lifetime risks, respectively, were 119, 43 and 8.7 per thousand. The estimated lifetime risk was greater than some previous estimates not accounting for heathy worker survival bias. This bias was addressed using employment duration and mine above/below ground status. A model-fitted function of cumulative exposure accommodated attenuation of exposure effect. The estimated excess lifetime risks of lung cancer at old diesel REC exposure levels common in occupational groups in the past exceed 5%. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Carcinogens Dust Environmental Exposure Lung Lung Diseases Mining Morbidity Mortality Neoplasms Occupational Health Particulate Matter Railroads Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Vehicle Emissions

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• Keywords:
  Airborne Dusts Airborne Particulates Cancer Carbon Diesel Engines Diesel Exhaust Diesel Exhausts Exposure Levels Lung Cancer Lung Disease Lung Disorders Miners Morbidity Rates Mortality Rates Railroad Industry Risk Factors Truck Drivers Underground Miners Underground Mining

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• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary ; Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  EID - Education and Information Division ; EID - Education and Information Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Volume:
  73
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20048722
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2016 Sep; 73(Suppl 1):A25
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon (CAS RN 7440-44-0) ; Carbon (CAS RN 7440-44-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Epidemiology in Occupational Health - EPICOH 2016 - September 4-7, 2016, Barcelona, Spain
• Supplement:
  1
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:941218a507dce693343e02563ea360f7695c8eebc373b7444386db8e259672f916008f030c9af16c604e18cab83508f8c97dc79dab651156bcda27f8759488ae
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/203408/cdc_203408_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 61.81 KB ]