A Pennsylvania environmental group this week praised a new study that claims diesel exhaust presents a cancer danger, and called for tougher standards to reduce emissions.

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) joined Physicians for Social Responsibility and the American Lung Assn. of Pennsylvania in praising PennEnvironment's new study, "Dangers of Diesel: How Diesel Soot and Other Air Toxics Increase Americans' Risk of Cancer."
"This report brings a new dimension to the term 'cancer sticks,' which is what we used to call cigarettes," said Charles McPhedran, attorney for PennFuture. "Today's cancer sticks are the exhaust pipes on the back of diesel-powered trucks, buses and construction vehicles, and they make just sitting in traffic hazardous to your health.
"We must protect our children from a lifetime of exposure to toxic pollution in diesel exhaust," said McPhedran. "Just as our governments acted against the scourge of cigarettes, it is time for action to protect us from these cancer machines.
"In particular, the Bush administration must set tough standards to reduce emissions from non-road diesel engines, like those in bulldozers, forklifts and tractors," McPhedran said. "Because the current standards are so weak, these engines contribute most of the added cancer risk from diesel pollution in Pennsylvania."
The report released Thursday is one in a series of reports, including studies by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators (STAPPA) and the Assn. of Local Air Pollution Control Officials (ALAPCO), that purport diesel exhaust is dangerous to human health.