Health Effects
What is Diesel Exhaust?
Diesel exhaust is a smokey complex mixture of thousands of toxic gases (carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury) and fine particles known as soot or particulate matter that contains more than 40 chemical substances which are listed as toxic air contaminants and as carcinogen which include many known cancer-causing substances (arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde, nickel) especially the risk of developing lung cancer and other types of cancer, and contributes to respiratory tract infections and lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Diesel exhaust is produced when diesel fuel is combusted (burned). It is produced when an engine burns diesel fuel.
What is Acid Rain?
Acid rain is rain, snow, fog or dry particles and gases that is polluted by acid in the atmosphere and damages the environment. Acid rain damages surface waters (lakes, rivers, streams) and the fish and animals living in them, other living things like plants, forests and soils, materials and structures (marble, limestone, sandstone, metals, paints, textiles, ceramic, leather, rubber), and especially human health through the atmosphere as we breathe or through the soil where the food we eat was grown from.
Acid rain is formed when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with water, oxygen and other chemicals in the atmosphere to form strong acidic compunds such as nitric and sulfuric acids. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, once released into the atmosphere, can be carried over long distances (can be hundred of miles), then will return to the earth as acidic rain, snow, fog or dust.
