DIESEL AND CANCER??????

[MIKE MOG]

I HAVE BEEN READING SOME POSTS ABOUT DIESEL CAUSING CANCER. WHAT CAUSES IT? IS IT THE EXHAUST FUMES, RAW DIESEL OR RAW DIESEL FUMES. I HAVE AN 8 YR OLD THAT HELPS ME HOOK UP THE CAMPER AND WAS WOUNDERING IF HE IS AT RISK BEING IN THE BARN OR BEHIND THE TRUCK WHEN ITS RUNNING.
THANK YOU,
MIKE

[DmaxMaverick]

Where did you read a post about that? Never heard of it. If it's true, my days (an 99% of the members here) are numbered.

My grandfather is having problems now. He was a Diesel mechanic since he was 13. Maybe that's the cause. He's 98, and counting.

Depending on who you talk to, everything causes cancer. The sky isn't falling and our aluminum heads didn't melt off, either.

[madmatt]

if thats the case, consider me done for! I don't know any thing about cancer but I'd keep him away unless there is good air flow where your workong @. A couple years ago I got an acute respitory infecton from what boiled down to diesel particulate inhalition from working in areas w/ inadequate ventalation. It was real nasty :eek: spent a few days in the hospital w tubes in my lungs draining fluid off. I felt like I was drowning. couldn't breath, was burning up even though it was like 10* out, sweating like crazy and shivering real bad.

[oyazi]

My Buds wife was a dispatch for a trucking firm w/inadequate ventilation. Fact is shop solvents, diesel smoke etc was being picked up by the system and she got very ill. She drop a huge amount of weight, developed allergies to everything in this area and many foods.

Eventually they moved out of state, a new environment and she seems to be recovering now. But tuff 5~6 yrs. Thot she was gonna die.

[Nix]

Diesel is refined from the same source as gasoline, which is known to cause cancer in laboratory animals from prolonged exposure to vapors and skin conatct. VOCs are bad for living things. It seems logical that if prolonged contact with gasoline is bad that petroleum based diesel is bad too. Petroleum is bad news period. I will admit that some very useful things can be made from it, but at a cost.

Think about vinyl(watch the HBO documentary "Blue Vinyl" :eek: )-the reason it stays pliable is because it contains a residual amount of VOC solvents that evaporate continuously over the life of that product. Heptanes, hexanes, pentanes, butanes, and all other kinds of highly volatile and carcinogenic higher fractions of petroleum are used in a multitude of consumer products besides gas and diesel that could easily be replaced with biodegradeable plant based compounds. It is positively criminal that our technology is not used to produce people and earth friendly fuel, plastics, paper, and cloth etc from industrial hemp,soybeans and other plants. Biodiesel is non-carcinogenic and sulfur free. Far less pollution is created from using plant based raw materials. Quite the opposite pollution would go way down because plants naturally clean the air,soil, and water.

You can't tell me that we have the technology to put a man on the moon, but can't figure out a way around using known carcinogens in order to manufacture the conveniences of everyday life(and industry) like fuel,plastics,adhesives,building materials,etc. Rudolf Diesel and George Washington Carver saw an answer almost 100 years ago in plants. But that would cut into the profit margins of the oil companies,which would profit the common man, and can't let that happen now can they! That's even ignoring what would happen to the pharmaceutical companies that rake in billions on cancer medication if cancer rates suddenly dropped due to drastically curtailed exposure to toxic substances. I'm tellin' ya, cancer rates have skyrocketed because of global use of petroleum. I have the choice not to smoke cigarettes or eat McDonalds, but what choice do you have of not breathing air pollution from the widespread use of petroleum? I'd say not much when air pollution from China affects air quality in Portland.

[ 04-12-2005, 10:45 PM: Message edited by: Nix ]

[jbplock]

Topic Moved to the General Diesel Forum...

[turbovair]

Assuming we ever REALLY went to the moon......

[MIKE MOG]

Thank's Guy's I got the picture. I will not let the boy back there while the engine is running. He has asthma thats why I ask and some people I asked around town told me about diesel and cancer. That makes sense about all of the petro products on the market today. I do know about exhaust fumes being dangerous to to the HC, CO, ECT, This is our first diesel and we love it.I just needed that info, anyway thanks again!!
Mike

[ANXIOUS-SUBMAN]

During the late 70's and 80's I serviced residential HVAC. There were several times that I got really sick, (months apart) vomitting for whole day until I had only dry heaves and then taking a day to recover. The first few times it happened I just wrote it off as the flew but after that I became suspicious there was more to it. The last time it happened I remembered what I was doing the day before and also remembered what I had been doing the day before the second to last time it happened. I had serviced oil burning furnaces that had been running out of tune and sooted up the flew pipes. Cleaning up all that soot was a nasty job. That black stuff is so fine it would go right through your cloths and get on your skin. And I'm sure I was breathing in more of that crap than I realized. After that I started wearing at least a paper mask and was much more careful in how I handled the soot, being careful not to let it get airborne as much as possible.

[n3qik]

Yep, its the soot that is the cause of it. That is why in July of 2006 we will see ultra low sulfer fuel. Then we will see the cat of today changed over to some other type system to treat the exhaust. The new systems are to lower NO2 and particulates, AKA soot.

[tom.mcinerney]

About 25 yrs ago a study correlated cancer (lung??) and diesel exhaust. Within a couple years virtually all diesel truck and bus exhausts in the New York area changed from very sooty (previously it was common to lose sight of an entire street in a black cloud in the wake of the city buses). Other studies have confirmed the link.
Benzene and other aromatics are present in varying degrees in both gasoline and diesel fuel. These are proven carcinogens , also in paint thinner.
*
I'm not a chemist. I've noticed that the worst carcinogens seem to combine a highly reactive component and a more inert solvent. I think the combination of sulfur compounds (reactive component) and aromatics (benzine, solvent) in diesel fuel makes it a little risky. When the fuel is purged of most remaining sulfur, its toxicity should drop.
*
There's also concern about emissions as endocrine disrupting chemicals - possibly interfering with bodily hormonal regulation:
http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/EDC/projects/edc_combust.htm.