The history, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity of carbon-based fuels and their emissions: 1. Principles and background

As research expands the types of energy sources for the future, there is a need to understand the health impacts of fuels and their emissions and to understand what health-research data gaps exist so that in the future proper and informative research and decision-making can be done. In that regard, this series of papers will explore what is known about the history, carcinogenicity, and genotoxicity of fuels and their emission products and attempt to identify major data gaps and areas of interest for future research. The reviews will concentrate on petroleum-derived fuels and biofuels. Although the length of these papers may cause the reader to think otherwise, the coverage of published works is intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive and is intended for a multidisciplinary audience. This series of papers is not a risk assessment; instead, it is an attempt to introduce the reader with the history and terminology needed when examining fuels and emissions for genotoxic effects. The purpose of this particular paper is to provide a background for the other papers (both within this series and within papers by others) and to establish some principles used in these reviews. In particular, this paper provides definitions, general histories relevant to the topic, an overview of the regulatory history, and appendices the author believes are useful to those interested in the fields associated with the toxicology of carbonaceous fuels and their emissions.