The California Air Resources Board Wednesday announced the results of new research it said further emphasized the need to vote in favor of proposed regulations on truck diesel exhaust this week.


CARB said it has new evidence that trucking industry workers who have had regular exposure to diesel and other types of vehicle exhaust showed an elevated risk of lung cancer with increasing years of work.

The new research reveals that trucking workers with an estimated 20 years on the job had an increased risk of lung cancer. Long haul workers, dockworkers, pickup and delivery drivers, and people who worked as both dockworkers and pickup and delivery drivers had an increased risk compared to workers in other job categories, such as clerks and mechanics.

This latest data is from a nationwide long-term study, "Lung Cancer and Vehicle Exhaust in Trucking Industry Workers" by E. Garshick and colleagues, which assesses lung cancer deaths by job type in 31,135 Teamsters Union members from 1985 to 2000.

Researchers limited their study to men older than 39 years with at least one year on the job, and examined men working as clerks, mechanics, long-haul drivers, dockworkers, combination workers, and in pickup and delivery. Within the study period there were 4,306 deaths seen in the study group with 779 cases of lung cancer.

At the meeting today and tomorrow, board members will hear public comments and vote on the Statewide Truck and Bus Regulation. If the regulation is passed, diesel trucker owners will be required to install diesel exhaust filters on their rigs starting in 2010, with nearly all vehicles upgraded by 2014.

For more information on the study: www.arb.ca.gov/board/ma/2008/ma121108.htm

For more information on the evolution of the proposed diesel truck rule: www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onrdiesel/onrdiesel.htm