Are Diesel Fumes Affecting Your Health?

[Envoy]

I see that the Channel 4 programme 'Dispatches' is doing a programme about diesel cars on Monday 26 January 2015 at 8pm. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say and could have some information pertaining to the rail industry.

 

[pompeyfan]

Will any new diesel trains run on adblue? Supposedly fumes off an engine on adblue are cleaner then petrol funes?

 

[edwin_m]

The IEP diesel engines apparently need AdBlue. I think the rest of the diesel fleet pre-dates the emissions regulations which couldn't be complied with except by using some sort of additive.

Generally rail emissions ought to be less of a problem than road emissions, because they are far fewer of them and they are not produced really close to people's houses. Even people who spend a lot of time on station platforms should be less susceptible because trains discharge their exhaust at roof level, unlike cars and buses where the tailpipe is close to the road.

 

[BritishRail83]

My health has been seriously affected by locomotive fumes. After travelling behind a class 47 in 1991 Ive had this uncontrollable addiction to visit various parts of the country to visit diesel galas, railtours, ends of platforms and drink real ale, After spending lots of money. I experience butterflies in the stomach waiting expectantly for locomotives to show up and run for the nearest railway line at the sound of a Diesel engine will I ever be cured? Do I want to be? sorry to go off topic I couldn't resist it!

 

[Welly]

Just as well the noisy and noisome Napiers are no longer running through Gasworks Tunnel every day!

 

[Kite159]

Just don't go down to New Street sat opposite a voyager when on a break/reversal.

That can get fumey

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Air polution killed over a hundred people in Scunthorpe last year Look North (Humber&Lincs) reported. So this is a serious problem that's a hidden killer. Diesel fumes can badly damage internal organs and cause lungs and mouth cancer. In my opinion health is paramount and fumes don't help, every effort should be made to reduce fumes at stations. In New Zealand hybrid trains are now in use on freight, maybe something similar here??

 

[leytongabriel]

Wouldn't want to be working on the Eurostar platforms when the wind is coming in from the west (as it very often does). Blows all the fumes over from the MML diesels which then seem to get trapped. It's bad enough sometimes as a passenger. Award-winning design my a++e.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Wouldn't want to be working on the Eurostar platforms when the wind is coming in from the west (as it very often does). Blows all the fumes over from the MML diesels which then seem to get trapped. It's bad enough sometimes as a passenger. Award-winning design my a++e.

I agree I used that station once before it was messed with and it was okay. I went to London a couple of years ago and it did have ventilation problems with fumes. My main complaint would be MML platforms are hard to get to with the shopping mall and barriers. It is better for Eurostar connections than Waterloo though.

 

[yorksrob]

It has to be said, the Victorians knew what they were doing when they built their big trainsheds.

 

[TheJRB]

Wouldn't want to be working on the Eurostar platforms when the wind is coming in from the west (as it very often does). Blows all the fumes over from the MML diesels which then seem to get trapped. It's bad enough sometimes as a passenger. Award-winning design my a++e.

I did hear once that the Southeastern platforms had to be closed on one occasion because the fumes from a fault EMT train had got trapped and made the place unbearable. I don't know if this is true but I can imagine it getting bad in exceptional circumstances.

 

[asylumxl]

Wouldn't want to be working on the Eurostar platforms when the wind is coming in from the west (as it very often does). Blows all the fumes over from the MML diesels which then seem to get trapped. It's bad enough sometimes as a passenger. Award-winning design my a++e.

The award winning design of St Pancras Mall has been discussed on here before, and surprisingly, many people agreed with me when I said it was awful.



It's strange that rain can get in the extension but the fumes can't get out.

 

[AndyPJG]

My health has been seriously affected by locomotive fumes. After travelling behind a class 47 in 1991 Ive had this uncontrollable addiction to visit various parts of the country to visit diesel galas, railtours, ends of platforms and drink real ale, After spending lots of money. I experience butterflies in the stomach waiting expectantly for locomotives to show up and run for the nearest railway line at the sound of a Diesel engine will I ever be cured? Do I want to be? sorry to go off topic I couldn't resist it!

Is there a Diesels Anonymous group in your area?

 

[Jonny]

Air polution killed over a hundred people in Scunthorpe last year Look North (Humber&Lincs) reported. So this is a serious problem that's a hidden killer. Diesel fumes can badly damage internal organs and cause lungs and mouth cancer. In my opinion health is paramount and fumes don't help, every effort should be made to reduce fumes at stations. In New Zealand hybrid trains are now in use on freight, maybe something similar here??

Never mind rail fumes, what about commercial road-related fumes? In major cities it should be a choice between petrol, electric and pedal except for emergency vehicles. Anything else should use rail, change tractor units and/or trans-ship at an out-of town location.

Minimodal anyone?
(https://web.archive.org/web/20050204024402/http://minimodal.com/ - from the wayback machine, sampled in 2005)

 

[Oliver]

Air polution killed over a hundred people in Scunthorpe last year Look North (Humber&Lincs) reported. So this is a serious problem that's a hidden killer. Diesel fumes can badly damage internal organs and cause lungs and mouth cancer. In my opinion health is paramount and fumes don't help, every effort should be made to reduce fumes at stations. In New Zealand hybrid trains are now in use on freight, maybe something similar here??

Did Look North name the one hundred people who were killed in Scunthorpe? Did it name any of them? I suspect not. That is not to deny that pollution is a "bad thing", but to ascribe cause and effect in such ways is highly suspect.

 

[jopsuk]

I'm an asthmatic- the health effects of diesel vehicles in urban areas are painfully apparent to me.

 

[pompeyfan]

I'm an asthmatic- the health effects of diesel vehicles in urban areas are painfully apparent to me.

I'd be interested to know of you have noticed an improvement, newer buses and lorries all run using AdBlue which cleans the emissions, and I believe anything built during and after 2008 runs off adblue

 

[Springs Branch]

Not sure whether it's any better today, but last time I was waiting on the through platforms at Manchester Victoria, the atmosphere was foul with diesel fumes.

I'd hate to be a platform dispatcher working there day-in-day-out. Roll on electrification!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

This is one for the over 60's amongst us. In the middle period of the 1950's to the early period of the 1960's, some of the older buses running in the fleet of Manchester Corporation could make nausea a matter with which to contend with on the lower-deck with the noxious fumes that permeated that area. Has anyone in other areas any memories of this occurring on their buses in that time period?

 

[merlodlliw]

It is a lot cleaner today,I recall the dmus stood in stations idling all day,with black filth pouring out.
Emissions from petrol cars is far more dangerous in my opinion.You can see diesel emissions, but usually not from the petrol car.

I also remember buses 30 years ago, pouring out black smoke.

 

[Mikey C]

It's not the clouds of smoke that is the issue, but tiny particulates that come out of diesel engines, which aren't visible but are dangerous. London's Oxford Street is very bad for this, and that is bus heaven/hell.
Modern diesel engines have particulate filters fitted, but these clog up at low speeds - you need a decent burn up to clear the filters - and unscrupulous owners have been known to disable them. If any trains were to have new engines with such filters, the speed they go at would clear them easily.

 

[edwin_m]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...er-diesel-car-tax-admits-shadow-minister.html

Encouraging motorists to trade in their petrol cars for diesel vehicles was one of the last Labour government’s biggest environmental mistakes.

Barry Gardiner, the shadow Environment minister, said the party was trying to cut CO2 emissions when it introduced new vehicle tax rates in 2001.

It meant that motorists switched to diesel vehicles and parts of the country saw a big increase in nitrogen dioxide and other harmful chemicals in the atmosphere.

Mr Gardiner said: “Hands up — there's absolutely no question that the decision we took was the wrong decision. But at that time we didn't have the evidence that subsequently we did have.”

Leaving aside the rather feeble political swipe at Labour, this suggests the evidence for diesels causing more local harm is incontrovertible.

 

[Harbon 1]

Air polution killed over a hundred people in Scunthorpe last year Look North (Humber&Lincs) reported. So this is a serious problem that's a hidden killer. Diesel fumes can badly damage internal organs and cause lungs and mouth cancer. In my opinion health is paramount and fumes don't help, every effort should be made to reduce fumes at stations. In New Zealand hybrid trains are now in use on freight, maybe something similar here??

I'd hazard a guess that the air pollution came from the huuuuuuuuuuge steel works that you can see from space rather than cars and trains.

Diesel train fumes are less of a problem than road fumes. Whats really the solution? One slightly less efficient engine pulling 30 containers, or 30 lorries pulling one container each?

Personally I like the smell of diesel locos although living near the end of a loop for 15 years I've grown up with it

 

[DarloRich]

There is a current IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) campaign around this

http://www.iosh.co.uk/Membership/Ou...p-News/IOSH-Occupational-Cancer-Campaign.aspx

 

[Jonny]

It's not the clouds of smoke that is the issue, but tiny particulates that come out of diesel engines, which aren't visible but are dangerous. London's Oxford Street is very bad for this, and that is bus heaven/hell.
Modern diesel engines have particulate filters fitted, but these clog up at low speeds - you need a decent burn up to clear the filters - and unscrupulous owners have been known to disable them. If any trains were to have new engines with such filters, the speed they go at would clear them easily.

Whereas petrol engines and electric vehicles produce practically no particulates, even between them.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...er-diesel-car-tax-admits-shadow-minister.html



Leaving aside the rather feeble political swipe at Labour, this suggests the evidence for diesels causing more local harm is incontrovertible.

The worst thing is, global warming will have relatively little effect on Britain (nothing that some engineering and possibly some DDT won't solve). And that's assuming that climate change is down to CO2, which is questionable as well.

 

[Ash Bridge]

What about the constant stench from aircraft engines that pervades the environment around airports?

 

[jopsuk]

diesel engines are not just bad for particulates (though they've been getting much better), they're also bad for NOx (for which they've not got much better), which is less visible (though it does rather contribute to the yellowness of the air in London on calm days) but is also a nasty asthma trigger. Petrol engines aren't much better either. Many people (including last night's Top Gear, sigh) were crowing about how much the NOx went down on Oxford Street- on pretty much every other monitoring station it spiked hugely as traffic levels increased. The only reason it went down on Oxford Street is that most of the motorised traffic on Oxford Street is buses.

 

[BritishRail83]

On a serious note I look forward to when most of our Railway system is electrified which it should have been years ago. I also hope the Battery class 379 tests go well on the Harwich line as this will help with the elimination of diesel traction. I love diesels but the emmisions are bad, but not as bad as road or air. In London I support the introduction of the low emmisions zone. All our buses should be hybrid or fully electric.

 

[Mikey C]

On a serious note I look forward to when most of our Railway system is electrified which it should have been years ago. I also hope the Battery class 379 tests go well on the Harwich line as this will help with the elimination of diesel traction. I love diesels but the emmisions are bad, but not as bad as road or air. In London I support the introduction of the low emmisions zone. All our buses should be hybrid or fully electric.

Emissions controls have been a godsend to the bus manufacturing industry, you can imagine in previous years during a recession new bus orders even in London being cancelled to save money, and letting smokey old buses chug on, but not any more.

 

[ExRes]

It's strange that rain can get in the extension but the fumes can't get out.

It's because of the pathetic design of the west side of the station, the wind blows through the enormous gap where the glass should be and then works its way to the eastern side via Eurostar, if only the architects had fouled up the eastern side as well then there would either be an exit for the fumes or a way of balancing up the 'designer atmosphere'