IARC Diesel Exhaust & Lung Cancer: An Analysis

By Hank Campbell — November 12, 2015

The International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC) operates under the auspices of the United Nations World Health Organization with the goal of examining evidence for carcinogenicity (involvement in causing cancer) of specific
exposures. Their belief is that most cancers are linked to environmental factors and are therefore preventable by limiting those, whereas the weight of evidence has shown that most cancers are related to lifestyle (such as smoking or obesity) and genetics or other natural causes (e.g. random mutation.)

Because they are geared toward simpler assessments of hazard and not risk, their findings can be confusing to media and the public. For example, an October, 2015 monograph (volume 114) put processed meat
in the same hazard category as cigarettes and plutonium, even though the actual risk of cancer from eating meat is minute compared to the risks of getting cancer from cigarettes.

This document analyzes their decision regarding diesel emissions and notes there were some alarming flaws in their working group selection process and a number of conflicts of interest.

Download IARC Diesel Exhaust & Lung Cancer: An Analysis in PDF form

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By Hank Campbell

Hank Campbell is an award-winning science writer and bestselling author. He became the second President of the American Council on Science and Health in June of 2015 and prior to that began the 2006 Science 2.0 movement. He has written for USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Wired, and in many more places. He is on the Board of Trustees at Science 2.0 and serves on the Advisory Council of Atlantic Legal Foundation.

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A few reviews of Science Left Behind:

Wall Street Journal - “usefully revealing how pervasive scientific misinformation is in progressive arguments on organic and genetically modified foods, clean energy, nuclear waste and other matters.”

Scientific American - “...the left's sacred values seem fixated on the environment, leading to an almost religious fervor over the purity and sanctity of air, water and especially food. Try having a conversation with a liberal progressive about GMOs — genetically modified organisms — in which the words “Monsanto” and “profit” are not dropped like syllogistic bombs.”

Forbes - “on many of the most critical issues of our time, the “progressive” perspective is often rooted in out-dated, anti-empirical, junk science paradigms that threaten innovation—and are beginning to unnerve the most scientifically minded thinkers on the left."

Huntington News - "Groundbreaking…If I were teaching journalism, this is a book that I would require my students to read and absorb -- and keep for reference.”

Science Based Medicine - "pure music to the ears of science-based medicine. They agree that the anti-vaccine movement is based on outright lies, they call the Huffington Post a laughingstock of the scientific community for its endorsement of CAM, they call for the NCCAM to be abolished, [and] they explain why presenting data about relative risks rather than absolute risks is misleading."

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