Who is at Risk of Railroad Workers Cancer?
Experts have said that there is no safe level of exposure to certain carcinogens, including benzene, asbestos and diesel exhaust. However, the longer a worker spends in a poorly ventilated working area or machine shop, the more cancer risk they will face. It goes without saying that a California railroad worker that spends their entire career around toxic materials like creosote, solvents, diesel and silica will be at increased risk for related illnesses and diesel exposure cancer.
The highest risk in the rail industry can vary from one rail yard to the next, and also from one person to the other, but in general, any worker facing acute toxic exposure on a daily basis should monitor their health very closely for the rest of their lives. Individuals cannot change what they faced in the past, but workers can insist on better working conditions, and can demand that their employers adhere to basic OSHA work safety standards.
Those who may be at the greatest railroad cancer risk are machinists and mechanics who worked in small workshops with noxious fumes. Conductors and yardmen regularly faced a great deal of diesel fuel exhaust exposure, and almost anyone else out in the yard could have chronically inhaled an unsafe amount of diesel.
Yardmen and anyone else who handled coal tar pitch, industrial preservatives and creosote are also at a greater cancer risk. Welders, pipefitters, maintenance staff, electricians and other workers handled asbestos materials or worked with machinery and equipment that had toxic insulation.