Railroad Injury
Railroad Diesel Exhaust Injury Lawyers
Illinois and Missouri

Excerpt From

Railroad Diesel Exhaust and Lung Cancer
-Establishing a Viable Claim under FELA
Trial November 1992

Diesel exhaust has been identified as a cause of lung cancer among railroad workers. Medical evidence supporting the link is substantial enough that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has recommended that "whole diesel exhaust be regarded as 'a potential occupational carcinogen' as defined in the Cancer Policy of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration."

Exhaust from diesel-powered engines, including locomotives, is the result of incomplete combustion of fuel. Diesel exhaust emissions are generally analyzed as having two component phases. The first component is called the gaseous phase and includes such gases as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, acrolein, nitrogen oxide, and nitrogen dioxide. The second phase component, called the particulate phase, contains most of the carcinogens found in diesel exhaust.

Epidemiological studies of diesel-exposed railroad workers have estimated that shop craft workers like electricians, machinists, and shop foremen, who work indoors, are the most heavily exposed to diesel exhaust.

FELA states that a railroad whose negligence is the cause, in whole or in part, of an employee's injury must compensate the employee for the injury. The Locomotive Boiler Inspection Act (LBIA) may also be applicable. This statute imposes liability without fault for injury caused by a locomotive operating on the railroad line at the time of injury.