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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Diesel fumes as hazardous as passive smoking: WHO
LONDON -- Diesel fumes cause cancer, the World Health Organization's cancer agency declared this week, a ruling it said could make exhaust as important a public health threat as second-hand smoke.
The risk of getting cancer from diesel fumes is small, but since so many people breathe in the fumes in some way, the science panel said raising the status of diesel exhaust to carcinogen from "probable carcinogen" was an important shift.
"It's on the same order of magnitude as passive smoking," said Kurt Straif, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer department that evaluates cancer risks. "This could be another big push for countries to clean up exhaust from diesel engines."
Since so many people are exposed to exhaust, Straif said there could be many cases of lung cancer connected to the contaminant. He said the fumes affected groups including pedestrians on the street, ship passengers and crew, railroad workers, truck drivers, mechanics, miners and people operating heavy machinery.
The new classification followed a weeklong discussion in Lyon, France, by an expert panel organized by the IARC. The panel's decision stands as the ruling for the IARC, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 16, 2012 A18
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