Railyard Contamination - Children's Exposures to Toxic Contaminants

Children, particularly those developing in the womb, are the most vulnerable to dangers of toxic exposure. This is a fact of their small size, their fast growth and metabolism, as well as immature defenses. Women hoping to become mothers are also vulnerable because their bodies can retain toxics for a long period of time after an initial exposure. When a woman does conceive, these toxic chemicals can then pass through the placenta to the fetus.

The specifics of how toxic chemicals affect children are still being researched. Much of that research comes out of sites like the Eugene railroad yard, when researchers decide it is appropriate to measure the numbers of resulting illnesses and deformities. However, communities like Eugene should not be an experiment.

The Trainsong neighborhood is a perfect example of the failure of industry-funded risk assessments to protect the health of children. Despite the fact that EPA guidelines state that health risk calculations need to be based on all relevant sources of pollution, the current assessment only considers a small subgroup of the contaminants present at the railroad yard. Taking into account this subgroup alone, Union Pacific’s own Health Risk Assessment estimates children in the Trainsong neighborhood are already receiving about 74% of the dose of hazardous chemicals expected to make them chronically sick. Simply including each child’s exposure to pollutants present in their neighborhood’s air, such as diesel emissions from trains and trucks and formaldehyde from nearby industries, brings the actual exposure to 110% of the dose expected to produce illness. These illnesses can include brain damage, liver damage and respiratory problems among others.

The Union Pacific risk assessment does not adequately take into account children exposures through daily childhood activitites such as swimming in neighborhood ponds, drinking from hoses that use well water, swimming in backyard pools filled with well water and playing in contaminated dirt. Nor does the risk assessment account for children's increased vulnerability to chemical exposure.

Risk assessment is unacceptable in this situation; it’s the result of science based on arcane laws constructed by lobbyists and bureaucrats behind closed doors. It’s another case of big industries hiding behind supposed “sound science” yet manipulating the science to benefit themselves alone. It doesn’t involve the community members who have to live with the health effects of the decision. It’s certainly a decision-making model that does not account for the health of the neighborhood’s children.