Health, Energy & Economic Impacts

Emissions from diesel engines found in trucks, ships, locomotives, and agricultural and construction equipment, especially the microscopic soot known as “particulate matter” (PM), create serious health problems for adults and have extremely harmful effects on children and the elderly.  Health issues from diesel emissions include (but are not limited to) chronic bronchitis, asthma, premature death, and cancer.

• Fact Sheet on the Health Impacts of Diesel Exhaust

Below is a list of reports and websites that provide in-depth information and statistics on the health effects of diesel exhaust.  Also provided are ways to help reduce the health impacts of diesel pollution.  While this list is not completely comprehensive, it provides a good starting point for research and education on this important issue.

Reports

Government

• Health Effects Associated with Traffic-Related Air Pollution (March 2007)
• Air Quality and Land Use Handbook: A Community Health Perspective (April 2005)
• Health Effects of Particulate Matter and Ozone Air Pollution (January 2004)
  
• U.S. EPA Draft Regulatory Impact Analysis: Chapter 2: Air Quality, Health, and Welfare Effects (April 2003)
  
• Multiple Air Toxics Exposure Study in the South Coast Air Basin (MATES-II) (March 2002)
  
• U.S. EPA Health Assessment Document for Diesel Engine Exhaust (2002)
• U.S. EPA National Air Toxics Assessment

Academic (Peer-Reviewed)

• Elemental Carbon & PM2.5 Levels in an Urban Community Heavily Impacted by Truck Traffic (October 2002)
• Diesel Exhaust and Asthma: Hypotheses and Molecular Mechanisms of Action (February 2002)
• NEPA’s Uncertainty Principle in the Federal Legal Scheme Controlling Air Pollution from Motor Vehicles (April 2005)
• The Masculinization of the Fetus During Pregnancy Due to Inhalation of Diesel Exhaust (February 2001)
• Lung Cancer in Railroad Workers Exposed to Diesel Exhaust (November 2004)
• Diesel Exhaust: Critical Analysis of Emissions, Exposure, and Health Effects (2004)
• Diesel Emissions and Lung Cancer: Epidemiology and Quantitative Risk Assessment (June 1999)
• Diesel Fumes and the Rising Prevalence of Atopy: An Urban Legend? (March 2003)
  

Other

• An Analysis of Diesel Air Pollution and Public Health in America (June 2005)
• Cleaner Construction Equipment for California: A Blueprint for Healthier Communities (2005)
• Diesel Health in America: The Lingering Threat (February 2005)
• Diesel Soot Health Impacts Map and Zip Search (2005)
• Exhausted by Diesel: Human Health Impacts (April 1998)
  
• Public Health and Environmental Impacts of Diesel Emissions (June 2005)
  
• Sick of Soot: Reducing the Health Impacts of Diesel Pollution in California (June 2004)

Websites

Government

• California Air Resources Board: Air Pollution Seminar Series
  
• California Air Resources Board: Health and Air Pollution
• California OEHHA: Air-Diesel Exhaust
  
• EPA: Air Pollution Health Effects

Organizations

• American Lung Association
• Clean Air Task Force
• Health Effects Institute

Journals

• Environmental Health Perspectives
• Environmental Science and Technology

Academic

• Northwest Center for Particulate Matter and Health
  
• Southern California Particulate Center