NIOSH Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Health and Safety, Committee on Education and Labor on Diesel Exhaust by R. A. Lemen, July 12, 1989

摘要

Richard A. Lemen, Assistant Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control, report on the health effects of workers exposed to diesel exhaust. NIOSH first made recommendations regarding exposure to diesel exhaust in 1976. NIOSH notified the Mine Enforcement Safety Administration (the forerunner of the Mine Safety and Health Administration) about the health effects of long-term exposure to a combination of coal dust, an agent known to cause the chronic lung disease - coal workers' pneumoconiosis, and the gases and vapors of diesel exhaust known to be pulmonary irritants. The authors recommended informing all concerned in the coal mining industry that, pending completion of adequate animal and human studies, further introduction of diesel equipment into underground coal mines might result in future economic disruption if their use was found to pose a health risk.