Exposure to diesel exhaust causes cancer, warns WHO

The World Health Organisation's (WHO) cancer research agency has revealed that the exhausts from diesel engine have cancer causing properties, and urged action to reduce human exposure to it.

This is to be noted that, diesel exhaust was classified as "probably" carcinogenic in 1988 by IARC.

"Diesel engine exhaust causes lung cancer in humans," News24 quoted Christopher Portier, chair of a working group at the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), as saying.

The UN body said that there was also a "positive association" with an increased risk of bladder cancer.

"Large populations are exposed to diesel exhaust in everyday life, whether through their occupation or through the ambient air," a statement said.

People are exposed to the diesel exhaust gases daily from cars, trains, ships and power generators.

"Given the additional health impacts from diesel particulates, exposure to this mixture of chemicals should be reduced worldwide," Portier said.

Portier's group also suggested that petrol exhaust fumes were also possibly carcinogenic, a finding being unchanged from its previous findings in 1989.

-With inputs from ANI