DIESEL AND CANCER??????

[MIKE MOG]

I HAVE BEEN READING SOME POSTS ABOUT DIESEL CAUSING CANCER. WHAT CAUSES IT? IS IT THE EXHAUST FUMES, RAW DIESEL OR RAW DIESEL FUMES. I HAVE AN 8 YR OLD THAT HELPS ME HOOK UP THE CAMPER AND WAS WOUNDERING IF HE IS AT RISK BEING IN THE BARN OR BEHIND THE TRUCK WHEN ITS RUNNING.
THANK YOU,
MIKE

[DmaxMaverick]

Where did you read a post about that? Never heard of it. If it's true, my days (an 99% of the members here) are numbered.

My grandfather is having problems now. He was a Diesel mechanic since he was 13. Maybe that's the cause. He's 98, and counting.

Depending on who you talk to, everything causes cancer. The sky isn't falling and our aluminum heads didn't melt off, either.

[madmatt]

if thats the case, consider me done for! I don't know any thing about cancer but I'd keep him away unless there is good air flow where your workong @. A couple years ago I got an acute respitory infecton from what boiled down to diesel particulate inhalition from working in areas w/ inadequate ventalation. It was real nasty :eek: spent a few days in the hospital w tubes in my lungs draining fluid off. I felt like I was drowning. couldn't breath, was burning up even though it was like 10* out, sweating like crazy and shivering real bad.

[oyazi]

My Buds wife was a dispatch for a trucking firm w/inadequate ventilation. Fact is shop solvents, diesel smoke etc was being picked up by the system and she got very ill. She drop a huge amount of weight, developed allergies to everything in this area and many foods.

Eventually they moved out of state, a new environment and she seems to be recovering now. But tuff 5~6 yrs. Thot she was gonna die.

[Nix]

Diesel is refined from the same source as gasoline, which is known to cause cancer in laboratory animals from prolonged exposure to vapors and skin conatct. VOCs are bad for living things. It seems logical that if prolonged contact with gasoline is bad that petroleum based diesel is bad too. Petroleum is bad news period. I will admit that some very useful things can be made from it, but at a cost.

Think about vinyl(watch the HBO documentary "Blue Vinyl" :eek: )-the reason it stays pliable is because it contains a residual amount of VOC solvents that evaporate continuously over the life of that product. Heptanes, hexanes, pentanes, butanes, and all other kinds of highly volatile and carcinogenic higher fractions of petroleum are used in a multitude of consumer products besides gas and diesel that could easily be replaced with biodegradeable plant based compounds. It is positively criminal that our technology is not used to produce people and earth friendly fuel, plastics, paper, and cloth etc from industrial hemp,soybeans and other plants. Biodiesel is non-carcinogenic and sulfur free. Far less pollution is created from using plant based raw materials. Quite the opposite pollution would go way down because plants naturally clean the air,soil, and water.

You can't tell me that we have the technology to put a man on the moon, but can't figure out a way around using known carcinogens in order to manufacture the conveniences of everyday life(and industry) like fuel,plastics,adhesives,building materials,etc. Rudolf Diesel and George Washington Carver saw an answer almost 100 years ago in plants. But that would cut into the profit margins of the oil companies,which would profit the common man, and can't let that happen now can they! That's even ignoring what would happen to the pharmaceutical companies that rake in billions on cancer medication if cancer rates suddenly dropped due to drastically curtailed exposure to toxic substances. I'm tellin' ya, cancer rates have skyrocketed because of global use of petroleum. I have the choice not to smoke cigarettes or eat McDonalds, but what choice do you have of not breathing air pollution from the widespread use of petroleum? I'd say not much when air pollution from China affects air quality in Portland.

[ 04-12-2005, 10:45 PM: Message edited by: Nix ]

[jbplock]

Topic Moved to the General Diesel Forum...