After Legal Fight, NCI Researchers Publish Study Linking Diesel Exhaust, Cancer

ananyo writes "A landmark study involving U.S. miners that links cancer rates to diesel fume exposure has been published after a seventeen-year legal battle with an industry group. A February 27 Slashdot story had reported that lawyers for the mining industry had sent threatening letters to scientific journals advising them against publishing the study. Initiated in 1998, after the first of many legal delays, the study analyzed exposures in detail for more than 12,000 workers while controlling for smoking and other risk factors. In the end, the scientists found that miners faced a threefold risk of lethal lung cancer, and underground workers who were heavily exposed to diesel fumes faced a fivefold risk. The two concluding papers from the study are available in full."

Comments

Re:Emissions

[EXrider]

Your other point is right on target, too - old locomotives are often rebuilt and reused, which is probably better for the environment than building a new one would be, even if the new one is more fuel efficient or runs cleaner.

In people's zeal for going green by cutting emissions, I think they often overlook the fact that decommissioning (recycling) an old vehicle, or piece of outdoor power equipment and manufacturing a replacement for it, is likely a net loss for the environment. It consumes a large amount of energy and resources to do so.

Why haven't I ever seen a study done on this? Oh, probably because there's a whole market (and political party) around guilting certain consumers into buying these products.