The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified diesel exhaust as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) and gasoline exhaust as a possible carcinogen (Group 2B) based studies of lung cancer, however the evidence for other sites is limited. We recently undertook a study to investigate whether occupational exposure to diesel and gasoline engine exhaust were associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer in men. The findings of this study involving researchers from Cancer Care Ontario, INRS (Montreal), and Dr. Villeneuve at Carleton University have just been published.
The data were collected from a population-based case–control study conducted in 7 Canadian provinces conducted in 1994–1997. Lifetime occupational history and information on other risk factors was collected. Our findings suggest that sustained high-level exposure diesel emissions may increase the risk of rectal cancer.
The published manuscript is open access and is available at the following website. Click here to read the paper.