Diesel particulates--recent progress on an old issue.

Over the past 115 years the invention of a compression ignition engine by Rudolph Diesel in the 1890s has contributed significantly to the productivity of many nations, owing to the widespread use of larger diesel powered equipment in most industrial activities. The down-side in terms of occupational health has been the exposure of a large number of workers to the complex mixture of toxic, gaseous, adsorbed organics and particulate components found in the raw exhaust emissions. Although the adverse health effects of the gaseous fraction of diesel emissions have been known for sometime, only in the last two decades has research indicated that the particulate component of the diesel exhaust has the potential to induce various health effects. In addition, it is associated with nonhealth aspects such as malodour, visual and nuisance pollution. Diesel exhaust emissions were investigated >20 years by the BOHS Hygiene Standards Committee (BOHS, 1981). The Committee’s terms of reference were;