Comment on 'Cancer Risk and Diesel Exhaust Exposure Among Railroad Workers' by Rosenfeld, et. al., 2022. Water, Air, Soil Pollution, 233,171

摘要

We are writing regarding a recent article by Rosenfeld et al. that discusses potential cancer risk that the authors' state is related to diesel exhaust exposure among railroad workers (Rosenfeld, 2022). The paper includes numerous mischaracterizations of USERA policy, vague and likely misleading references to appropriate statistics and methods of calculating occupational exposure, citations of USEPA approaches that do not exist, as well as a stated purpose in the abstract that is never fulfilled. Furthermore, when we read the original article, we observed that Dr. Rosenfeld and the colleagues he employed at the time did not disclose that he is a founder of Soil Water Air Protection Enterprise (SWAPE) and that he and SWAPE are paid experts in legal cases against the railroad. Similarly, Spaeth, MD, did not disclose that he is also routinely a paid expert in legal cases against the railroad. Additionally, the vast majority of this article has already been produced in multiple expert reports for plaintiffs against railroads, thus indicating that the authors were compensated for this work. Therefore, the original statements that funding was provided only by Rosenfeld's company, SWAPE, and that there are no conflicts of interest related to this article appear contradictory because the authors have been paid specifically for producing the material/having the opinions disseminated in this paper.