Study: Rail yard emissions pose cancer risk to nearby residents

Study: Rail yard emissions pose cancer risk to nearby residents Diesel pollution from rail yard equipment increases cancer risks among people who live nearby, according to a report by the state's air quality experts released Wednesday.
   Officials from the California Air Resources Board, which conducted the study, said people living near some of the rail yards analyzed face cancer risks similar to people living near busy freeways. The study, however, did not show a consistent increase of risk for all facilities and found that the risk dramatically drops off within a mile of the facilities.
   The study cites, on the high end, how people living near a rail yard in Commerce were found to be facing a nearly 70 percent greater risk of contracting cancer due to exposure to diesel emissions from the rail yard. Scientifically speaking this translates into 1.7 cancer cases per 1,000 people instead of the baseline one case in 1,000.
   In contrast, the study found the increase for those living around other rail facilities were only slightly elevated — 7.5 percent at a Mira Loma facility and 10.4 percent at the Carson yard.
   While highlighting the increased cancer risks for those living near off-dock rail yards, the study pointed out that on-dock rail facilities emit much less pollution — only 18 of the 1,760 tons of diesel particulate matter emitted each year.
   The two-year study looked at on-dock rail operations and off-dock facilities in Carson, Commerce, East Los Angeles, Mira Loma and Northern California.
   CARB officials plan to use the study to seek stricter emissions standards for trucks that serve rail yards and in pushing the federal government to impose higher standards on locomotives.
   The railroads have already agreed to phase out nonessential locomotive idling in train yards and to the installation of idling-control devices for California-based locomotives.