Air in New York subway is heavily polluted, NYU study finds

Subway riders and transit workers in major cities are exposed to levels of air pollution that could increase the risk of heart and lung problems, according to a new study from New York University.

Researchers from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine said air quality readings, particularly on the PATH rail system connecting New York and New Jersey and the New York subway system, raise serious concerns about health and warrant further investigation.

The research, published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, examined the air quality of transit systems in the Northeast, including subways in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, during morning rush hours and evening. He revealed that air quality was lowest on the platforms and improved somewhat on air-conditioned trains.

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Dr Terry Gordon, professor in the school’s environmental medicine department and co-lead author of the study, said all systems had pollution levels at least several times higher than those recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection. The two New York systems were the most polluted.

“The only saving grace is that you don’t spend a lot of time on the subway, whether it’s on the train or on the platform,” said Dr Gordon.

Many transit workers spend most of their careers working in tunnels, at stations and on trains. Richard Clark, a PATH union representative for signals workers, said he found the study alarming.

Mr Clark said many current and former colleagues suffer from respiratory problems and cancers which they believe are caused by their jobs. He wants the New York and New Jersey Port Authority, which manages PATH, to invest more in cleaning up tunnels, platforms and other areas where pollutants are accumulating.

Port Authority spokesman Ben Branham said on Wednesday the agency would review the study. “We take health and safety issues at our facilities very seriously,” he said.

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Tim Minton, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, which manages the city’s subway system, said previous air quality tests on his trains did not reveal any health risks , “However, we will be reviewing this study carefully as the safety of customers and employees is still our top priority.”

Mr Minton noted that NYU researchers sampled three of the system’s 472 subway stations and four of the nearly 1,000 daily trains. A spokesperson for the union that represents most metro workers, Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, did not immediately comment.

The most polluted stations included the Christopher Street station on the PATH and the Second Avenue station on the F subway line.

NYU researchers believe that many pollutants in the subway systems they studied are linked to the steel dust created by grinding train wheels against the rails, to the carbon dust that emanates from a part from a train that touches the third rail and diesel locomotives to maintain soot emissions.

Steve Chillrud, a research professor at Columbia University who published a landmark study of air quality in the New York City subway in 2004, said the levels of pollutants found by NYU researchers are cause for concern. .

Dr Chillrud noted that NYU’s research highlighted the need for a more detailed investigation, such as an epidemiological study to assess the risk of taking the subway. “I think it’s a clear call to assess risk in other studies, but it’s not yet a clear call to panic,” he said.

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The research was conducted before the coronavirus pandemic, when weekday ridership on PATH averaged nearly 300,000 passengers and weekday metro ridership was around 5.5 million passengers.

The number of transit riders has fallen across the country. Transportation agencies predict that it will recover to near pre-pandemic levels over the next few years.

Dr Gordon said cloth masks, which are now ubiquitous due to the pandemic, are also reducing people’s exposure to poor air quality. If cyclists wear masks after the pandemic, as many commuters in Asia do, he said, it would benefit the health of people, especially drivers with underlying health conditions.