A collision between a two-car train and a passenger vehicle in rural Suffolk, Virginia (VA), on the morning of December 12, 2020, sent the adult driver and a teenaged passenger to the hospital. The younger victim was airlifted from the scene and was reported to have sustained critical injuries. The railroad crossing crash…
In 1998, a panel of experts convened by the California Air Resources Board concluded that regularly breathing in diesel engine exhaust at work raises a worker’s risk for asthma, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This was true even after factoring in the effects of smoking by employees. The findings should not have…
“Air on Board Diesel Trains Is Five Times Worse Than Beside a Busy Street.” That headline for an April 4, 2019, Chemistry World article would surely grab the attention of railroad engineers, conductors, trackmen and others who work on and around freight trains. But is breathing in diesel exhaust really all that harmful? Yes. On…
U.S. railroads were among the leading users of asbestos insulation and brake components throughout the 20th century. The toxic, cancer-causing material could still be found on trains and in rail yards well into the 2000s because federal rules aimed at ending nearly all industrial and commercial uses of asbestos were issued with loopholes that allowed…
Accepting that long-term, chronic exposure to diesel fumes causes lung problems ranging from asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to cancer took several decades. Federal rules for limiting how must exhaust from diesel engines workers must breathe in only started emerging during the 1990s and early 2000s. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration still has…