Diesel engines are used for transport and power supply. The sooth particles in the exhaust of diesel engines can cause lung cancer, and other respiratory and lung diseases.  There is no safe exposure concentration below which no adverse health effects occur. Therefore, the Dutch Committee on Occupational Safety (DECOS) has estimated so-called health-based calculated occupational cancer risk values (HBC-OCRVs) The DECOS estimates that the exposure concentrations of respirable elemental carbon in the air, which serve as parameter for exposure to diesel engine exhaust powered by petroleum-diesel fuels, and which corresponds to:

  • 4 extra death cases of lung cancer per 100,000 (target risk level), for 40 years of occupational exposure, equals to 0.011 µg REC/m3,
  • 4 extra death cases of lung cancer per 1,000 (prohibition risk level), for 40 years of occupational exposure, equals to 1.03 µg REC/m3.

The exposure levels are 8-hour time-weighted average concentrations.