Findings that coal trains are leading to significant increases in particulate air pollution in the Newcastle region have prompted renewed calls by medical experts for rail wagons to be covered and for closer monitoring of coal dust.
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A study of 70 coal trains passing through the lower Hunter region over three days last month found particulate levels rose by between double and 13 times, compared with background pollution, according to the Coal Terminal Action Group.
CTAG conducted the research on behalf of 20 community groups in the area using industrial standard equipment.
“The study shows that coal trains dramatically increase pollution levels in residential areas,” said James Whelan, a CTAG spokesman.
The multiples of pollution, such as PM2.5 and PM10 (particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5-10 micrometres, respectively) was based on eight "signature" trains. Using the PM10 measure, particulates rose by between 94 per cent and 1210 per cent for those trains.
Overall, 57 of the 70 trains, or 81 per cent, registered what the researchers deemed a "distinguishable" increase in pollution. Readings were higher for empty than for full coal wagons, with the latter typically treated before transport to reduce dust blow.
The report comes just days after a Senate inquiry into the impacts on health of air quality recommended all states and territories “require industry to implement covers on all coal wagon fleets”.
Cumulative risks
Steve Hambleton, president of the Australian Medical Association, said some schools in the Newcastle area were restricting the times students could play outside depending on pollution readings.
“Newcastle is an example of a population where there's been some cumulative risk over time [from particulate pollution]," Dr Hambleton said. “Given we know that Newcastle has had these past exposures, we should take extra precautions to protect the population.”
Dr Hambleton said pollution measurements by the NSW Environment Protection Authority needed to be in “hot spots”, such as along the coal corridors, to identify more precisely the risks.
CTAG has been campaigning against plans to build a fourth coal export terminal at Newcastle that would see a doubling of coal trains. It conducted its own research after what it called “highly compromised” studies overseen by the EPA.
A study into coal dust commissioned by the commonwealth-owned Australia Rail and Track Corporation earlier this year was approved by the EPA before peer review. The subsequent independent review, however, found a "major error" with the analysis.
Campaigners highlighted the fact that the study averaged out pollution from passing trains even when winds blew dust away from the single monitor.
“It looks like they didn't know what they were doing or it was a deliberate attempt not to find the dust,” said Ben Ewald, an epidemiologist and medical researcher at the University of Newcastle who advised the community-led study.
“What the CTAG study shows is that there are measurable amounts of particulates coming off the trains and this makes a contribution to the ambient air pollution.
“We can't say this is reaching dangerously high levels and it's all due to the trains,” Dr Ewald said. “But it is one source and it's making a contribution.”
Examples include exacerbating conditions such as asthma, while those susceptible to certain heart diseases “are more likely to be tipped over into a heart attack”, he said.
The AMA's Dr Hambleton backed calls to cover the coal wagons.
“If you can minimise the dust by whatever mechanisms, we'd be supporting it,” he said. “We don't think there's a lower limit where there's no damage.”
