Why This Matters Legally
Under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) — the federal law that protects railroad workers injured on the job — a railroad can be held liable if its negligence played any role in causing a worker’s illness. A central element of any FELA negligence claim is notice — whether the railroad knew, or should have known, that a particular hazard existed.
When it comes to creosote, the notice question is clear. Federal agencies, international health organizations, and peer-reviewed scientific researchers have been warning about creosote’s cancer-causing properties since the 1980s.
Railroad workers handled creosote-treated ties and timbers as a routine part of their jobs for generations. If the railroad failed to warn workers, provide protective equipment, or take reasonable steps to reduce exposure to a substance it had every reason to know was dangerous, that may give rise to a valid claim.
What Is Creosote?
Creosote is a wood preservative and waterproofing agent produced from coal tar. It gives railroad ties their distinctive dark color and sharp smell. For decades, creosote has been widely used to treat wooden railroad ties throughout the United States.
Creosote is not a single chemical. It is a complex mixture of hundreds of different compounds. The major categories include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — commonly called PAHs — along with phenolic compounds, aromatic amines, and various other chemical classes. PAHs can make up as much as 90 percent of a creosote mixture, and many of them are known or suspected to cause cancer.
A single railroad tie can hold a significant amount of creosote, typically six to eight pounds per cubic foot of treated wood. As those ties age, weather, and break down, the creosote does not simply stay put. It can leach into the surrounding air, soil, and water. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), leaching from treated wood is the main source of creosote emissions and the health risks associated with them.
How Railroad Workers Are Exposed
Workers did not have to handle freshly treated ties directly to be exposed to creosote. Exposure could happen in several ways.
Inhalation is one of the most common routes of exposure. As creosote-treated wood ages or is disturbed — during tie replacement, track repair, switch assembly, or welding — volatile compounds and fine particles can be released into the air around workers. On warm days, that release can increase. In enclosed spaces, such as switch assembly halls, concentrations can reach levels many times higher than workers would typically encounter outdoors.
Skin contact is another major route. Workers who handle ties directly — spikers, tie platers, laborers — could get creosote on their hands and arms. Creosote compounds can then be absorbed through the skin, meaning workers may have been chemically exposed without realizing it, shift after shift, year after year.
Contaminated soil was another exposure route. PAHs from creosote persist in railroad soils for decades, sometimes centuries. Research has found that PAH levels in soil near creosote-treated railroad ties can be many times higher than background levels found in ordinary urban soil. Workers who knelt, sat, worked in that soil, or breathed dust from it may have inhaled or ingested cancer-causing compounds without knowing it.
A Timeline: What the Science Has Shown
The 1700s and Beyond: The Earliest Evidence That Coal Tar Causes Cancer
The connection between coal tar and cancer is not a modern discovery. It is one of the oldest documented relationships in the history of occupational medicine. In 1775, British surgeon Percivall Pott published observations linking scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps to prolonged exposure to soot and coal tar residue. It was one of the first times in recorded medical history that a specific occupation had been connected to a specific cancer, and the exposure involved the same family of chemical compounds found in creosote.
That finding helped lay the foundation for nearly two and a half centuries of research connecting workplace exposures to cancer. By the early twentieth century, laboratory experiments had confirmed that coal tar extracts could cause cancer in animals. Scientists later identified and studied the carcinogenic compounds responsible in detail, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.
Creosote is a coal tar product. It contains the same classes of PAHs that chimney sweeps in Pott’s research were exposed to, and that researchers spent the next two centuries confirming as cancer-causing. By the time railroad workers were handling creosote-treated ties in the twentieth century, the basic science linking coal tar compounds to cancer had been established for generations. The railroads had no credible basis for claiming ignorance.
1984: The EPA Moves to Restrict Creosote
In 1984, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to eliminate all non-wood uses of creosote based on mounting evidence of its carcinogenic and mutagenic properties. This regulatory action signaled that the scientific and regulatory concern about creosote had become serious enough to prompt formal action.
1985: International Cancer Researchers Find Sufficient Evidence of Cancer Causation
In 1985, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) — the cancer research arm of WHO — reviewed the scientific literature on coal tar and coal tar products. IARC found sufficient evidence of a causal association between exposure to coal tar and the development of cancer in humans, and specifically noted that creosotes derived from coal tar are probably carcinogenic to humans.
1987: IARC Classifies Creosote as a Probable Human Carcinogen
By 1987, IARC formally classified creosote as a Group 2A probable human carcinogen. This classification means that the evidence of cancer risk in humans, combined with strong evidence from animal studies, was sufficient to conclude that creosote probably causes cancer in people. For railroad workers who handled creosote-treated ties as part of their daily work, this finding was directly relevant, whether or not anyone warned them.
1987: Researchers Measure What Railroad Workers Were Actually Breathing
A 1987 study went beyond laboratory findings and measured real exposure levels among actual railroad workers performing railroad tasks. The results were concerning across the board. Workers assembling switch elements indoors were exposed to significantly elevated levels of creosote vapors and cancer-causing PAHs — especially when working in enclosed spaces with doors closed. Welders working on switches faced some of the highest PAH exposures measured in the study. Even workers stationed near tie stockpiles in a rail yard, without directly handling the ties, were exposed to meaningful levels of carcinogenic compounds.
The study made clear that you did not have to be doing the dirtiest job on the site to have a serious exposure problem. Simply being in the vicinity of creosote-treated materials during railroad work was enough.
1993: The EPA Classifies Seven Creosote PAHs as Probable Human Carcinogens
By 1993, the EPA had classified seven specific PAHs commonly found in creosote as probable human carcinogens. These included benzo[a]pyrene, one of the most potent carcinogens known to science. Research has also shown that creosote as a whole mixture may actually be more carcinogenic than any single component measured on its own. In other words, railroad workers were not exposed to one isolated chemical, but to a mixture that may have been more dangerous than its individual parts.
2004: The World Health Organization Confirms the Risk
In 2004, WHO published a comprehensive assessment of coal tar creosote. The assessment confirmed that creosote contains multiple carcinogenic compounds, that railroad ties are a primary source of creosote emissions in the environment, and that workers handling creosote-treated wood face genuine health risks through both inhalation and skin absorption. WHO specifically identified the slow leaching of creosote from aging treated wood as the main ongoing source of exposure and related health concern.
More Recent Research: Real Measurements in Railroad Environments
Later studies have continued to document the reality of what railroad workers were exposed to. Research on workers assembling railroad sleepers found significant PAH exposure through both breathing and skin contact on the hands. The findings showed that dermal exposure was a substantial route of exposure, even though many workers may never have suspected it.
A separate line of research confirmed that creosote PAHs do not stay confined to the ties themselves. They migrate into surrounding soil and can persist there for decades. In dusty railroad environments, workers who breathe contaminated dust or come into contact with that soil may be inhaling or ingesting carcinogens that have been leaching out of nearby ties for years, even long after the ties have been replaced.
What the Railroad Should Have Done
The tools for reducing creosote exposure were known and available long before most railroad workers received any meaningful protection. Basic industrial hygiene principles applied directly to creosote. These were the same kinds of worker-protection principles discussed in railroad industry meetings as far back as the 1930s in connection with other hazardous substances.
Railroads should have warned workers that creosote contains cancer-causing chemicals and that skin and inhalation exposure are genuine health risks. Workers handling ties, assembling switch elements, or welding near creosote-treated wood should have been provided with respiratory protection capable of filtering PAH vapors and particles. Impermeable gloves and protective clothing should have been standard equipment for anyone handling creosote-treated materials. In enclosed work areas, such as switch assembly halls, ventilation systems should have been designed and maintained to move contaminated air away from workers’ breathing zones.
When a railroad failed to take those basic protective steps, workers could spend entire careers in daily contact with a substance federal and international health authorities had labeled a probable human carcinogen. That failure may have had serious consequences.
What This Means for You
If you worked for a railroad and regularly handled railroad ties, worked near tie stockpiles, assembled or welded switches on creosote-treated wood, or performed track maintenance involving creosote-treated materials, you may have been exposed to creosote on the job. If you have since been diagnosed with cancer, particularly lung cancer, bladder cancer, skin cancer, or scrotal cancer, you may have a valid claim under FELA.
Under FELA, the railroad does not need to be the only cause of your illness. If the railroad’s failure to protect you from a known hazard played any role in your diagnosis, you may be entitled to compensation. A railroad may have been negligent if it:
- Failed to warn you that creosote contains cancer-causing substances
- Did not provide gloves, protective clothing, or respiratory protection when you handled creosote-treated ties or wood
- Required you to work in enclosed spaces with inadequate ventilation while handling creosote-treated materials
- Failed to train you on the health risks of creosote exposure or how to protect yourself
- Ignored regulatory and scientific guidance that had been publicly available for decades
Frequently Asked Questions
What is creosote and why is it used on railroad ties?
Creosote is a chemical wood preservative made from coal tar. It has been used on railroad ties for well over a century because it protects the wood from rot, insects, and weathering, extending the life of the ties significantly.
The problem is that it contains a mixture of chemicals — including many known or suspected carcinogens — that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin by workers who handle the treated wood or work near it.
What diseases are linked to creosote exposure?
Creosote exposure has been linked to lung cancer, bladder cancer, skin cancer, and scrotal cancer, among other serious illnesses. The cancer risk comes primarily from the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that make up a large portion of creosote. Several of these PAHs have been classified by the EPA and international health organizations as probable or known human carcinogens.
Do I have to handle ties directly to be exposed?
No. Creosote vapors and fine particles are released into the air when creosote-treated wood is disturbed, heated by the sun, or subjected to cutting, welding, or grinding. Workers near tie stockpiles, in switch assembly halls, and performing track maintenance are all exposed even without direct hand contact with the ties. Skin exposure can also occur through contact with contaminated soil in railroad work environments.
When did the railroads have enough information to know creosote was dangerous?
By the mid-1980s, federal and international health agencies had classified creosote as a probable human carcinogen. By 1993, the EPA had identified seven specific cancer-causing PAHs commonly found in creosote. Scientific studies measuring actual worker exposures during railroad work were published in the late 1980s. The railroads had access to all of this information — whether they acted on it is a different question. But the warning signs did not start there. From the chimney sweep research of the 1700s to the century of coal tar cancer science that followed, railroads had little basis for treating creosote as an unknown risk.
Does it matter if I worked most of the time outdoors?
Outdoor work reduced but did not eliminate the risk. Research has confirmed that workers near tie stockpiles and those performing track maintenance in open rail yard environments still had measurable and significant creosote and PAH exposure. On hot days, creosote can release more vapors, increasing airborne concentrations around workers even in open-air settings.
What should I do if I think creosote exposure may have contributed to my illness?
Start by writing down what you remember. Include the railroad you worked for, your job titles, the work you performed involving ties or creosote-treated wood, how often you handled ties or worked near stockpiles, whether you were provided gloves or respiratory protection, and whether anyone warned you about creosote.
Then contact a FELA attorney before time runs out on your claim.
If you or a family member worked for a railroad and has been diagnosed with cancer or another serious illness after years of working around railroad ties and creosote, contact Diesel Injury Law for a free consultation. We represent railroad workers nationwide.
Call us at (312) 877-5588. There is no cost to speak with us and no obligation.
This blog post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this post does not create an attorney-client relationship.
