Health effects associated with using diesel equipment in underground coal mines were discussed. This was a summary of the discussion of the Health Effects Work Group. The group reviewed seven published epidemiological investigations on the health effects from diesel exposure. It was not possible to determine whether exposure to diesel exhausts presented an increased risk of respiratory disease or lung cancer because the studies were based on too few cases or insufficient exposure and latency periods. Six ongoing epidemiological studies including two being conducted by NIOSH and one conducted jointly by NIOSH and the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration, were described. It was felt that these studies when completed should help answer questions about the risk of cancer and chronic respiratory disease resulting from diesel exposure in underground mines. In-vivo and in-vitro studies were reviewed. Only a few studies on the effects of diesel exhausts in laboratory animals have been done. These have shown that diesel exhaust can induce skin cancer and cause pathological changes in the respiratory tract. An inventory of health effects associated with diesel exhaust emissions utilizing data provided by the Pollutant Interaction and Environmental Characterization Work Group indicated that diesel particulates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons acting independently or in combination with coal mine dust pose serious problems. Recommendations for conducting future epidemiological investigations and in-vivo and in-vitro studies on the health effects of diesel exhausts and coal dust were given.
Proceedings of a Workshop on the Use of Diesel Equipment in Underground Coal Mines, Morgantown, West Virginia, September 19-23, 1977; Morgantown, West Virginia, NIOSH
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.