Diesel linked to Cancer:
The EPA Thinks So

Many products today are said to be linked to cancer, as time passes this list grows. The Environmental Protection Agency would love to add diesel emissions to this list and banish the petroleum diesel engine. It took a decade and several drafts for the EPA to get its scientific review panel to approve a report that says there may be a link between diesel exhaust and cancer.

This may sound bad for the diesel industry, but it could have been worse. The EPA changed the wording of their claim that diesel exhaust is "highly likely to be carcinogenic" to "likely to be carcinogenic". This slight change in wording is believed by some to "go a long way toward keeping the regulators at bay."

This claim may sound valid enough. What is not blatant in this statement is that the studies which led to this theory were done in the 1950s and 1960s. Since that time diesel and engines have changed significantly.

One concern is that this report will give regulators the ammunition they need to set up new regulations for existing diesel equipment. The state of California has become a pioneer once again by unveiling a plan to retrofit about 90% of all diesel engines in the state. This plan is still being developed. Many people want to know who will pay for the retrofits. The cost of retrofits range from about $7,000 to $18,000. Some are hoping that the government will offer financial incentives.

Diesel: The American Way

Although the future may not look bright for the diesel industry, one thing is certain. This country relies heavily on the diesel engine. According to a report done by Charles River Association entitled "Diesel Technology and The American Economy", the current prosperity and the future economic growth of the nation is strategically linked to diesel power.
Diesel engine power accounts for:
• 94% of all freight moving in trucks, trains, boats, and barges.
• 67% of all farm machinery
• more than 95% of all public transit buses, and all heavy construction machinery
• annual gross output of the diesel industry manufacturing diesel equipment, fuel and related materials exceeds $85 billion. (This figure is greater than the combined gross value of all the computer hardware and office machines manufactured in America.)
The same report also claims that diesel power is so efficient and reliable that replacing it with the "next best" alternative would increase freight cost by 56% for trucking and 48% for rail.
Who knows what the future may be for the diesel industry? Only time will tell...

The information in the articles on this page came from the following sources:

www.dieselnet.com/news/0012dtf.html

www.dieselforum.org/enews/downloads/DTF-Economic-Study.pdf
OEM Off Highway Magazine "EPA Links diesel to cancer" by Dave Jensen