Toxic Trains - Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You

[Guest guest]

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:31:05 -0400 (EDT)

" BushGreenwatch " <info

Toxic Trains - Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You

 

 

August 16, 2006 | Back Issues

 

Toxic Trains - Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You

 

There is nothing more haunting than the sound of a train whistle.

There is also nothing more terrifying. Thanks to federal resistance to

regulating transport of toxic chemicals, residents of rail hub cities

across the country don't know if the trains they hear are carrying

harmless cargo or something more deadly.

 

Not that the labeling on the rail cars gives anything away. Contents

are identified only by codes that require a guidebook to decipher. The

Department of Transportation's Emergency Response has provided just

such a list (http://hazmat.dot.gov/pubs/erg/psnsort.htm). It makes for

scary reading:

 

* 2810 denotes Sarin, Soman and Lewisite, 1798 (hydrochloric acid),

12591010 (butadiene) and 1824 (sodium hydroxide), all toxic if inhaled

or absorbed through the skin. (nickel carbonyl)

* 1541, acetone cyanohydrin, is so dangerous that emergency responders

are advised not to provide mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to persons who

may have inhaled it.

 

Unlike the dubious weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, these are the

real deal and the trains that carry them are vulnerable to human

error, mechanical breakdown or terrorist acts.

 

Although most rail cargo is transported without incident, an accident

could be catastrophic. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory estimates

that if " the wind is in the right direction, 100,000 people could

easily die " from the toxic cloud emitted by a ruptured tank.

 

Another issue: security. Like our nation's ports, rail yards and toxic

chemical plants are woefully under-protected. Stephen Flynn, senior

fellow at the Council in Foreign Relations notes, " there are

about…15,000 facilities in this country that make chemicals…but only

about one-sixth of those are required to have security plans. [For]

the rest of them, you don't have a very good sense of how secure they

are or what's being done to safeguard the public. "

 

It is nightmare scenarios like these that keep state and local

officials up at night and why cities on the northeast corridor and

beyond are pushing for legislation that would require freight

companies to reroute hazardous rail cargo away from densely populated

areas.

 

Working with the Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club and Greenpeace, the

D.C. city council recently passed an ordinance requiring that CSX

divert these trains from the capital city and its monuments. It should

come as no surprise that the railroad company, supported by the Bush

administration, has appealed the decision—a process expected to last

(and leave residents unprotected) for up to five years.

 

The government's failure to stop the attacks of September 11 has been

called a failure of imagination. The official response to Hurricane

Katrina was a failure of initiative. Ignoring the problems with toxic

trains can only be called a failure of will. According to Fred Millar,

an expert on hazardous material transport, there is action you can

take. " Learn more about the issue and introduce legislation that

reduces the likelihood of a hazardous material accident in your

community. Keep the pressure on Congress to mandate alternate routes,

greater security at chemical plants and safer practices. "

Take Action on Friends of the Earth's site - write a letter to your

local paper about the danger of toxic trains.

 

 

 

BushGreenwatch | 1717 Massachusetts Ave NW #600

Washington, DC 20036 | (202) 783-7400

Web site comments: info

Copyright 2006 Friends of the Earth