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Eugene Railyard - Health Exposure Risks

Everyone is constantly exposed to the chemicals in their environment: we eat, we drink, we breathe, and even during the winter when we're bundled from head to toe in clothing our skin is constantly exchanging chemicals with the environment. Our bodies are used to this and they perform amazing feats by accepting some chemicals and rejecting others. Skin, for example, not only keeps out bacteria but also keeps the right amount of water, heat, and salts in. The nose filters dust from the air we breathe and even most of the particles small enough to make it into our lungs are brought back out over time. This balance between the internal chemistry of the body and the external environment is critical to good health.
Many toxics are entirely foreign to body’s natural defenses and balancing mechanisms. The body can’t always cope with the abundance of new toxics that a contaminated environment delivers. Accumulation within the body can result in illness, but the line between sickness and health is an individual response and cannot be defined for all people. For each individual it is a combination of:.

• Concentration of toxics in the personal environment

• Rate of toxics intake

• Individual health history

• Toxicity of the chemicals

• Individual's rate of detoxification and removal

• Cumulative effects
The goal should be to make our environment safe for even the most vulnerable (elderly, sick, pregnant, and unborn.) After all, a community you have to leave if you become pregnant isn't much of a community.
There are a few basic ways that people are exposed to chemicals:

• Inhalation (Most of us call this breathing)

• Ingestion (Eating and drinking, as well as accidental)

• Absorption (The process by which chemicals move through the skin and into the body)
Inhalation exposes us to dust in the air, and toxics which travel as gases; both are present at the Union Pacific yard. Surface soils at the yard are contaminated and the wind carries them as dust. The solvents contaminating Trainsong/River Road groundwater volatilize (evaporate) out of the groundwater and mixes with surface and indoor air. Ingestion isn't just a problem when food is contaminated: babies, kids, and even railroad workers eat dirt when they work or play around it. Babies do it on purpose while adult workers will accidentally ingest significant amounts of soil simply through normal work activity.
Absorption is also an important route of exposure for these same groups of people. Their frequent contact with soils means that toxic soil contaminants have more time to make it past the skin barrier.

These are the established physical connections between people and Union Pacific's pollution. In a contaminated environment this connection necessarily carries health risks. The current debate is about what approach to take in evaluating these risks.OTA and community members advocate a precautionary, community-centered approach. We insist that any plan of action should consider not only UP's toxics but also those released by surrounding west Eugene industries. West Eugene doesn’t exist in empty space; area residents are exposed to the accumulated emissions from 16 major industrial facilities in addition to documented railroad contamination.