Railroad work has always been physically demanding, but for generations, the most dangerous part of the job wasn’t the heavy lifting or the moving of equipment. It was the air. Workers spent decades breathing diesel exhaust, handling asbestos-lined components, scraping benzene-based solvents, and walking around creosote-treated ties without knowing what those exposures were doing inside their bodies. The illnesses they developed didn’t show up the day they were exposed. They surfaced ten, twenty, sometimes forty years later, long after the worker had retired and the company had moved on.
At Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp, our Virginia FELA lawyers have handled railroad occupational disease cases for decades, and we’ve seen the toll these delayed diagnoses take on families. A skilled FELA lawyer who works these cases understands that proving the connection between a cancer diagnosis and railroad work requires medical experts, industrial hygienists, and a thorough reconstruction of decades-old job conditions. It isn’t simple, but it’s possible, and the law gives injured railroaders and their families a path to compensation that workers’ comp doesn’t offer.
The first step for any worker or family member is recognizing which cancers are actually connected to railroad work. There are more than most people realize.
The Toxic Exposures Behind the Diagnoses
The chemicals doing the damage aren’t exotic. They’re the everyday materials that made railroads run for most of the 20th century. Diesel exhaust from idling locomotives. Asbestos packed into boiler insulation, brake shoes, and gaskets. Benzene in the solvents and degreasers used in every shop. Creosote slathered onto wooden ties to keep them from rotting. Silica dust kicked up from track ballast. PCBs in old transformers and electrical equipment. Welding fumes from rail repair. PAHs from any fuel combustion happening around the worker were constant.
Most railroaders were exposed to several of these at once. Someone working in a roundhouse in 1975 was breathing diesel exhaust while standing next to asbestos brake shoes, near pipes wrapped in asbestos insulation, while a co-worker cleaned parts with a benzene-based solvent ten feet away. The exposures were stacked. The railroad rarely warned them.
Diesel exhaust deserves its own paragraph because it’s everywhere on railroads and because the science surrounding it has shifted significantly over the past 15 years. The International Agency for Research on Cancer reclassified diesel exhaust in 2012 from a probable human carcinogen to a confirmed one. That puts it in the same category as asbestos, benzene, and tobacco. The reclassification wasn’t a courtesy. It came after decades of research showing that the people most exposed to diesel exhaust, including railroad workers, miners, and truckers, developed lung cancer at significantly higher rates than the general population.
Lung Cancer
Lung cancer remains the most common occupational cancer among railroad workers. A landmark study published in Environmental Health Perspectives tracked nearly 55,000 U.S. railroad workers over 38 years and found that workers in operating jobs had a 40 percent higher risk of lung cancer mortality than the general population. The risk multiplies dramatically for workers who also smoked. Asbestos exposure combined with cigarette smoking can increase a worker’s lung cancer risk by 35 times or more compared to a non-smoker with no asbestos exposure.
Lung cancer often takes 20 to 40 years to develop after the relevant exposure begins, which means many of the diagnoses appearing today involve work that took place in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer that develops in the lining of the lungs, chest cavity, or abdomen. It is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure. Railroad workers came into contact with asbestos in boiler insulation, pipe wrappings, brake shoes, gaskets, and clutches, as well as in the interiors of older boxcars and cabooses. Carmen, machinists, electricians, and pipefitters faced some of the heaviest exposure, but engineers and conductors weren’t safe either. Disturbing asbestos-containing material releases microscopic fibers into the air that can be inhaled or swallowed.
The latency period for mesothelioma is long, often 20 to 50 years. A worker who was exposed in the 1970s may receive a diagnosis in 2026 or later. There is no safe level of asbestos exposure.
Bladder Cancer
Bladder cancer has been linked to diesel exhaust, certain aromatic amines used in dyes and solvents, and PAHs. The IARC noted a positive association between diesel exposure and bladder cancer when it reclassified diesel exhaust in 2012. Railroad workers in operating crafts and maintenance positions who breathed diesel fumes for years have shown elevated bladder cancer rates in occupational health research.
Leukemia and Other Blood Cancers
Benzene is a well-established cause of acute myeloid leukemia and is linked to several other blood and bone marrow cancers, including myelodysplastic syndrome and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Railroad workers came into contact with benzene through solvents, degreasers, fuel, and cleaning products used in shops and yards. Even relatively brief exposures to high concentrations of benzene can have lasting effects on bone marrow function.
Throat, Larynx, and Esophageal Cancers
Workers who inhaled diesel exhaust, asbestos fibers, or both have shown elevated rates of cancers affecting the upper airway and esophagus. These cancers can be particularly difficult to detect early because their symptoms, hoarseness, difficulty swallowing, and persistent cough, often get attributed to other causes until the disease has progressed.
Gastrointestinal Cancers
Stomach, colon, and other digestive tract cancers have been linked to railroad work in growing numbers of medical studies. The mechanism is straightforward. Workers who inhale airborne particulates also swallow them. Toxic dust and exhaust particles deposited in the mouth and nasal passages get carried into the digestive system, where they can damage cells over years of repeated exposure. Recent FELA lawsuits, including one filed in 2026 against Kansas City Southern Railway, have specifically alleged stomach cancer caused by diesel exhaust, benzene, and PAH exposure during decades of railroad work.
Kidney Cancer
Kidney cancer has been associated with exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE) and other industrial solvents historically used in railroad shops for cleaning and degreasing. Workers who handled these solvents without proper ventilation or protective equipment face an elevated risk.
Why These Cases Are Different
Occupational disease cases under FELA are not the same as injury claims from a single accident. They involve decades of exposure, latency periods that can stretch beyond a worker’s career, and aggressive defense strategies from the railroad. Companies will often argue that smoking, family history, or unrelated environmental factors caused the cancer. They’ll point to medical literature that questions the strength of certain exposure-disease links. They’ll dispute the worker’s exposure history and challenge the claim that the disease was actually caused by railroad work.
Building a strong FELA cancer case usually requires medical experts, industrial hygienists, epidemiologists, and a detailed reconstruction of work history. The three-year FELA statute of limitations typically starts when the worker knew or should have known that their illness was connected to railroad work, not when the exposure happened, which is critical for diseases that emerge decades after retirement. You can learn more about how Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp approaches these cases.
A Firm With Deep FELA Cancer Case Experience
Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp has represented injured railroad workers across the eastern United States since the mid-1980s. The firm’s attorneys have written and co-authored books on railroad injury law that are used as reference texts in law libraries throughout the country, and have served in leadership positions with the largest national trial lawyer organizations focused on rail worker injuries and occupational disease.
If you or a loved one was diagnosed with cancer after working in the railroad industry, contact an experienced FELA lawyer to discuss whether the illness may be connected to occupational exposure. Railroad cancer cases require careful investigation, but the law gives workers and families real options for recovery. Our attorneys have successfully handled significant FELA occupational disease cases, including an $8.6 million jury verdict we obtained for the estate of a retired brakeman/switchman whose fatal lung cancer was linked to decades of on-the-job exposure to asbestos, diesel fumes, and radiation.
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with cancer that may be linked to railroad work, the team at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp is ready to listen. Contact us at 833-997-1774 for a free consultation to discuss your situation. Our firm has offices in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Norfolk, and Chesapeake, and we represent injured railroad workers and families across Virginia, North Carolina, and beyond.