Diesel and Gasoline Engine Exhausts and Some Nitroarenes

Book excerpt: This volume of the IARC Monographs provides evaluations of the carcinogenicity of diesel and gasoline engine exhausts, and of 10 nitroarenes found in diesel engine exhaust: 3,7-dinitrofluoranthene, 3,9-dinitrofluoranthene, 1,3-dinitropyrene, 1,6-dinitropyrene, 1,8-dinitropyrene, 6-nitrochrysene, 2-nitrofluorene, 1-nitropyrene, 4-nitropyrene, and 3-nitrobenzanthrone. Diesel engines are used for transport on and off roads (e.g. passenger cars, buses, trucks, trains, ships), for machinery in various industrial sectors (e.g. mining, construction), and for electricity generators, particularly in developing countries. Gasoline engines are used in cars and hand-held equipment (e.g. chainsaws). The emissions from such combustion engines comprise a complex and varying mixture of gases (e.g. carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides), particles (e.g. PM10, PM2.5, ultrafine particles, elemental carbon, organic carbon, ash, sulfate, and metals), volatile organic compunds (e.g. benzene, formaldehyde) and semi-volatile organic compounds (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) including oxygenated and nitrated derivatives of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Diesel and gasoline engines thus make a significant contribution to a broad range of air pollutants to which people are exposed in the general population as well as in different occupational settings. An IARC Monographs Working Group reviewed epidemiological evidence, animal bioassays, and mechanistic and other relevant data to reach conclusions as to the carcinogenic hazard to humans of environmental or occupational exposure to diesel and gasoline engine exhausts (including those associated with the mining, railroad, construction, and transportation industries) and to 10 selected nitroarenes. -- Back cover.