I simply have to pursue this line just a bit more as I would hate for anyone to misunderstand the statements made that diesel fumes don't have enough carbon monoxide to kill a human. Studies have been done and published. In the following excerpt from
THIS SITE It debunks the notion that there wasn't enough CO from diesels to kill people in **** Death Camps. Go to the site to read the full report. Yes, modern diesels may be better, but, if in putting that cab on the tractor, some part of the air intake system were blocked, the engine would produce a greater amount of CO, it would build up in the cab from entering the openings, and could KILL.
<font color="blue"> * Fumes from a diesel engine are not toxic enough to kill people.
(This claim is made with regard to the death camp of Treblinka - see file with ruling of German courts on this. In other death camps, gasoline engines were used. The method of killing was simple - people were crammed into the gas chambers, and the exhaust of powerful engines was pumped into them).
Nonsense. In a closed chamber, of course diesel fumes will kill. There was actually a study on this, and its results are reported in "The Toxicity of Fumes from a diesel Engine Under Four Different Running Conditions", by Pattle et al., British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1957, Vol 14, p. 47-55. These researchers ran a few experiments in which various animals were exposed to diesel fumes, and studied the results.
In the experiments, the exhaust of a small diesel engine (568 cc, 6 BHP) was connected to a chamber 10 cubic meters (340 cubic feet) in volume, and the animals were put inside it. In all cases, the animals died. Death was swifter when the intake of air to the engine was restricted, as this causes a large increase in the amount of carbon monoxide (CO) that is emitted. (See, for instance, Diesel Engine Reference Book, by Lilly, 1985, p. 18/8, where it is stated that at a high air/fuel ratio the concentration of CO is only a few parts per million but for lower ratios (25:1) the concentration of CO can rise up to 3,000 ppm. It is very easy to restrict the air intake - the British researchers did so by partially covering the air intake opening with a piece of metal.) </font>
This just goes to show that making blanket statements as regards the safety of someone else is a bad practice. As in most instances, there are too many other factors to be point blank. John