Railroad creosote exposure and cancer

Creosote is a name for several products made by burning wood or coal, and each one is a mixture of many chemicals. Coal tar creosote is the wood preservative used most often in this country.

The CDC names putting up railroad tracks, bridges, or fences using creosote-treated wood as one job that brings exposure. Putting in telephone poles is another. These chemicals can get into the body through the lungs, the mouth, or the skin.

Coal tar, which gives us coal tar creosote, comes from producing coke, a fuel that is mostly carbon. Both coal tar and coal-tar pitch carry cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene.

Long-term exposure to creosote at work has been linked to several cancers, including skin, lung, bladder, and kidney cancer.

According to the National Cancer Institute, being exposed to coal tar or coal-tar pitch at work makes skin cancer more likely. Lung, bladder, kidney, and digestive tract cancers have also been connected with this kind of exposure.

The word "carcinogen" refers to any substance that can bring on cancer. These agencies weigh how strong the proof is that a substance can cause cancer in humans.

Most American workers injured at work turn to the state workers' compensation system. Railroad workers are not covered by it. Instead, a federal law called the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) lets them recover their losses directly from the railroad when its negligence played a part in their illness or injury.

FELA makes the railroad answerable when an employee's injury or death comes in whole or in part from negligence by its officers, agents, or employees. Negligence means not taking reasonable care. The Supreme Court said the railroad's negligence only has to play some part, however small.

FELA reaches illnesses that build slowly from work too, not only accidents. A worker who shares some blame can still recover, but the jury cuts the damages by that worker's share of fault. When the railroad's negligence played a part, a worker is not seen as having taken on the risks of the job.

Damages can include medical expenses, lost wages past and future, and pain and suffering.

Under FELA, a case has to be filed within three years, and it can go to either a federal or a state court. For an illness that builds slowly, the three years begin when the effects of the exposure appear.

That date can decide a case. A New Jersey appeals court ruled in January 2026 to keep in place the dismissal of a car inspector's bladder cancer claim because he filed too late. In May 2014, his doctor told him the cancer was linked to the air at his job. He waited until April 2019 to file, so the court said his claim for the cancer as it was in 2014 came too late. If a doctor has linked your illness to your work, it helps to get your claim reviewed soon. On the free call, you'll be asked which railroads you worked for and when, your job titles, where you worked, and when a doctor first connected your illness to your job.

When the worker has died, the claim goes to the estate's personal representative. It is brought to benefit the surviving spouse and children.