WASHINGTON, DC (ENS) - Air pollution from diesel locomotives is linked to about 3,400 premature deaths and other serious health effects every year, according to a new report released Thursday by the nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Defense.
The organization is using the report to pressure the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to issue proposed national locomotive emission standards promised in 2005 but not delivered.
In 2004, the EPA announced plans to issue proposed national locomotive emission standards in 2005 and to promulgate such standards by mid-2006.
'While trains capture the vivid imagination of children during the holiday season and are workhorses in American commerce, the pollution from locomotive smokestacks imposes a heavy burden on human health,' said Bill Chameides, Ph.D., chief scientist at Environmental Defense and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Diesel exhaust contains particulate matter, a form of air pollution linked to lung cancer and other respiratory problems.
Diesel exhaust also contains smog-forming oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide, which are deposited on land and water as acid rain, as well as greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
The use of trains for freight transport has doubled in the last 35 years, and today the trains on America's rails release levels of nitrogen oxides comparable to 120 coal-fired power plants, according to Environmental Defense.
By 2030, the EPA estimates that diesel trains will be responsible for about one-third of all particulate pollution in the air from the transportation sector, unless more protective emission standards are put in place.
'Fortunately, solutions to clean up locomotive pollution are at hand,' said Environmental Defense staff attorney Janea Scott. 'The cleaner fuel that enables advanced cleaner diesel technology is already on the books, and emissions reducing technologies are already being tested.'
Hybrid switcher engines for trains, called Green Goats, can cut fuel use by as much as 70 percent and emissions by up to 90 percent.
New technologies can keep train engines warm while they are turned off so the trains do not have to idle.
The report, 'Smokestacks on Rails: Getting Clean Air Solutions for Locomotives on Track,' examines diesel train pollution nationally and in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Detroit, Houston-Galveston and Los Angeles.
To read the report, click here.
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