The gases generated by diesel combustion cause cancer, experts from the World Health Organization said.
The gases generated by the combustion of diesel engines cause cancer in humans and belong to the same category of potentially lethal products that integrate asbestos, arsenic and mustard gas, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) said .
The specialists, who said their determination was unanimous and based on “strong” scientific evidence, urge people around the world to reduce their exposure to diesel gases whenever possible.
In an announcement that may cause fear among car and truck manufacturers, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a WHO department expert in oncology, reclassified the gases generated by diesel combustion from group 2A of probable carcinogens to group 1 of substances that have a specific relationship with cancer.
“The (specialized) working group found that diesel combustion is a cause of lung cancer and also noted a positive association with an increased risk of bladder cancer,” the IARC said in a statement.
The decision is the result of a week-long meeting of independent experts who evaluated the latest scientific evidence on the possibility of diesel and gasoline causing cancer.
The classification places diesel gases in the same risk category as other harmful substances, such as asbestos, arsenic, mustard gas, alcohol and tobacco.
Christopher Portier, head of the IARC working group, said the group’s conclusion “was unanimous: diesel engine combustion causes lung cancer in humans.”
“Given the additional impacts of diesel particles on health, exposure to this chemical mixture should be reduced worldwide,” Portier said in a statement.
Diesel cars are very popular in Western Europe, where advantageous tax treatments helped drive technological advances and demand boom.
Outside Europe and India, diesel engines are practically confined to commercial vehicles – especially because of the greater fuel efficiency. German automakers are trying to increase interest in diesel engines in the United States, where long distances on roads fit the system perfectly.
For almost 20 years, the combustion of diesel engines was defined by the IARC as probably carcinogenic to humans – definition of group 2A – but the expert advisors have repeatedly recommended since 1998 the revision of that classification as a priority.
In reaction to the IARC’s decision, Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Washington-based Diesel Technology Forum, said that manufacturers of diesel engines and equipment, refineries and producers of emission control technologies invested billions of dollars in studies on technologies and strategies to reduce emissions.
“Diesel engines with new technology, which use ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, advanced engines and emission control systems are close to near zero emissions of nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and particulate matter,” Schaeffer said in a release.
Regarding the combustion of gasoline, the group said that the gases generated should be classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” which does not change the previous IARC assessment, conducted in 1989.