Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen announced Monday that the Health Department will conduct a health assessment study of the effects of coal trains traveling through Oregon’s most populous county.
Chair Cogen directed Health Department officials to examine potential health hazards in response to the coal industry’s desire to build export stations in the Northwest. Trains carrying the fossil fuel from Montana and Wyoming likely would travel through Multnomah County.
Under the current proposals, coal would be shipped in open-topped rail cars through Oregon and Washington to Asia.
Chair Cogen, who is also the chair of the county’s Board of Health, outlined health concerns at the press conference on Monday, Sept. 10, including how:
- Coal and coal dust contain toxic heavy metals like arsenic, mercury and lead, which are linked to cancer and birth defects.
- Inhaled coal dust can exacerbate asthma, and cause chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Asthma rates in Oregon are high -- more than 10 percent of adults have asthma and nearly 10 percent of children suffer from the disease.
- Coal dust exacerbates chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can cause bronchitis and emphysema.
In his remarks, Chair Cogen also cited the railroad industries estimates that suggest that up to 500 pounds of coal dust can be released into the air per rail car and each coal train can have more than 100 rail cars.
“As a father and as a community member, I’m concerned about airborne coal dust in the air we breathe, in our gardens, on our playgrounds, and in the farms, forests and fishing areas along the route of the train tracks through the Columbia River Gorge and Multnomah County,” he said.
The county is the first agency in the region to study the effects of coal trains, though activists have called on Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and the state health department to review the effects.
“As the local health authority, we can’t just wait, hoping that others eventually take action,” Chair Cogen said. “Communities need to know now. Families need to know now.”
Dr. Gary Oxman, the health officer for Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, said that although credible information about how coal dust is harmful to health already exists, many questions remain unanswered.
“We’re not clear how this really plays out in the community,” Dr. Oxman said. “We’re not sure how the dust is distributed in the community.”
One of the county’s steps will be to identify all of the populations that may be affected in the community, said Lillian Shirley, the Health Department’s director.
Suzanne Clark, mother of a 4-year-old with asthma, said she is concerned that coal trains may one day travel through North Portland where she lives or in Southeast Portland where her daughter attends school. Both locations are near train tracks. Clark said she began studying air quality in Multnomah County after her daughter was diagnosed with the breathing disorder.
“In Multnomah County, we believe we can achieve progress through doing what is right for our children,” Clark said. “We believe we don’t need to poison our children’s air in order to achieve great things.”
Health officials will report back findings to the county Board of Commissioners in October, Chair Cogen said. Though the county does not have the authority to ban coal trains from traveling through its region, the assessment will allow the county to thoroughly inform the public about the risks.
More information: Read Chair Jeff Cogen's prepared remarks from the press conference.