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08/18/2008 09:53 PM
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7 Day Forecast Retired Workers Launch Suit Over Exposure To Police Seek Gunman Who Shot Man On
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Diesel Fumes
Politics 08/18/2008 09:53 PM
By: Bobby Cuza
NY1 ItCH Retired Workers Launch Suit Over
Transit Exposure To Diesel Fumes
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On 5th Anniversary Of Blackout, OEM
Video/DVD Reviews Some transit workers who have come down with serious illnesses in recent years say
Says It Is More Prepared
Video Game Guide they now believe that diesel fumes spewed out by buses are to blame and they're
Whipple's World taking their case to court. NY1 transit reporter Bobby Cuza filed the following story.
Zagat Reviews
It was about four years ago that 71-year-old Emidio DeStefano was diagnosed with
SPORTS
throat cancer and doctors all asked him the same thing. evening overnight morning
Sports
Scholar/Athlete "The big question was, every day, everybody that walked into my room – any doctors
FEATURES
– 'how many packs of cigarettes did you smoke?' and I’d say, 'I have never smoked
in my life.' They didn't believe it,” said DeStefano.
In The Papers
59
Fortune Business DeStefano may never have smoked, but he did spend 20 years working in a bus
NY1 For You depot. On Monday, he and other retired workers announced a lawsuit, saying
NYer of the Week decades of exposure to diesel exhaust made them sick. There are 13 plaintiffs in all –
One on 1 two of whom have already died.
Weekend Features
SPECIAL
Of the 13 men, nine of them have cancer of some form, most of them lung cancer.
REPORTS Four of them have some other kind of lung or heart ailment, and some of them have
WTC Coverage a combination of all three.
COMMUNITY
CALENDAR The lawsuit does not name the Transit Authority, but rather nine different
manufacturers of diesel engines and diesel buses.
YOUR N.J. NEWS
NOW
"It was the diesel engine manufacturers and the bus manufacturers that basically
ABOUT NY1 7-day forecast today travel
ignored the serious and harmful impacts,” said attorney John Dearie. “Gave no
radar tropics
Staff Profiles warning, gave no training, gave none of that to any of the workers."
Program Guide
Shows Today buses are much cleaner. In addition to a number of hybrid electric and natural
NY1 Store gas-powered vehicles, transit officials have replaced old diesel engines with cleaner
Station History ones and installed filters to catch soot.

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/transit/84853/retired-workers-launch-suit-over-exposure-to-diesel-fumes/Default.aspx[8/19/2008 3:22:29 PM]

NY1 | 24 Hour Local News | Transit | Retired Workers Launch Suit Over Exposure To Diesel Fumes

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But in the old days, bus depots had little ventilation, and workers say, buses would
NY1 Employment
be left idling overnight.
NY1 Minute
NYC INFO "There were times you couldn't even see the buses, never mind seeing the numbers
CONTACT US
on them – the smoke and the fumes, it was terrible. And no ventilation,” said retired
bus worker Connor Hartnett.
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"The smoke was like about ten feet up – inert. It was just lying there. You could
almost cut it with a knife,” said retired bus worker James McGee.

General Motors, the biggest company named in the lawsuit, declined comment
Monday, saying it hadn't yet seen the lawsuit. Attorneys, meanwhile, say they believe
this could be a landmark case, and expect many more sick workers to come forward.

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http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/transit/84853/retired-workers-launch-suit-over-exposure-to-diesel-fumes/Default.aspx[8/19/2008 3:22:29 PM]