Noxious Air Pollution at Birmingham New Street Railway Station

SPEAKER | Professor John E Thornes, Public Health England and the University of Birmingham.

ABSTRACT | The impact of air pollution on the health of workers and passengers in enclosed railway stations has been the subject of recent research in the UK where there is still a significant reliance on diesel trains (Thornes et al., 2017). The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) re-classified Diesel Engine Exhaust Emissions (DEEE) and related ambient air pollution to be carcinogenic and associated with increased mortality from lung cancer (IARC 2012). This has led to a re-examination of the health impacts of DEEE in the European Commission and the introduction in 2018 in the UK of new Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Nitrogen Monoxide (NO often called Nitric Oxide) which are both components of Diesel Engine Exhaust Emissions (DEEE). Although there is no overall WEL for DEEE, there are WELs for other constituents including Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide and Formaldehyde relating directly to DEEE. It is employers who are responsible for managing the risk from exposure to DEEE and other hazardous substances to both workers and others who might be affected including passengers. In a station such as Birmingham New Street, the station owner (Network Rail) and the train operators, who have employees working there, do have a legal duty, so far as is reasonably practicable, to manage the risks to health of their employees and also to passengers, from exposure to hazardous substances as specified by COSHH (The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as amended)).