Buffalo Rising Online

Nov 6th 2007, 6:53am By Bill Zimmermann

Substantial numbers of kids, and mothers, siblings and grandparents have fallen sick over recent decades on the Buffalo west side due to the 24-7, four-mile back idling diesel truck flow, and the southwestery flow diesel particlulates that visit upon the topographical flow of the village known as the West Side.

This entire area is a veritable baseball mit catching a constant flow of diesel particulates. Not enough people seem to want to acknowledge this. Maybe it will take community and health class-action law suits in order to gain attention.

Here's the science no one in mainstream media is telling Buffalo: The news media had long reported that the particulates were way too small to do much damage or cause alarm. But the world of science has come to know that the smaller the particulate, the more damage it does to a kid's absorbing lungs. Community lawsuits from California to Japan are starting to gain worldwide attention.

The Epidemic Buffalo West Side Asthma Cases remain a major burden within the Buffalo community located near the U.S.Canada border, and there is growing evidence from past studies confirming this statement.

The International Journal of Health Geographics cited the following, that “several published population-based and health care utilization studies have produced persuasive evidence suggesting a combination of contributing factors to asthma exacerbations and prevalence rates in neighborhoods located in close proximity to major traffic zones in western New York .

The evidence emerging from these reports lends credence to the hypothesis that traffic-related pollutants play a major role in the worsening of asthma and its development.”

Here's a few questions about the severity of the struggle to breathe on Buffalo’s west side:

Why do the PBA Diesel Trucks Idle?

The long lines 24-7 at 4 miles back aren’t a bad answer as to why diesel fuel trucks idle—but the added answer is that their drivers like it.

It seems truck drivers tend to idle their engines during rest periods to provide heat or air conditioning, to keep the engine warm during extreme temperatures, to maintain adequate battery voltage while using electrical appliances, safety, and habit.

PBA, et al, Truck Idling Facts:

􀂃 Approximately ½ million trucks idle annually over 300 days per year.

􀂃 Diesel gas is idled away at a rate of 1 gallon per hour, equaling 2,400 gallons per truck of fuel annually.

􀂃 1.2 billion gallons of diesel fuel are consumed each year from idling.

􀂃 Idling creates a cost of over $3 billion annually.

PBA’s Idling Trucks, et al, Environmental Effects:

􀂃 Every 28 hours in the U.S., the same amount of fuel is idled away as spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster (11 million gallons).

􀂃 Diesel exhaust contains small particulates, known as particulate matter (PM). They are so small that several thousand of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. Diesel engines are the third largest human-made source of PM.

􀂃 Diesel exhaust contributes to ozone formation (smog), acid rain, and global climate change.

􀂃 Each idling truck emits over 21 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) and approximately 0.3 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) annually, totaling over 11 million tons and 150,000 tons respectively.

􀂃 Diesel exhaust also contains sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC).

PBA’s Idling Trucks, et al, Health Effects On the West Side Children and Community :

􀂃 Ever so small particles of soot and exhaust can penetrate human cells and damage them. The conundrum is that the EPA has hitherto said the particles are small, under the table—and yet it is the wcientists that cite directly the smallness of them for the effectiveness of their death defying poisoness.

􀂃 Diesel exhaust is a major contributor to heart and lung disease on Buffalo’s West Side, as well as increased respiratory symptoms and/or disease, and decreases lung function. Studies show it is 100% pervasive on the west side as to home’s frequency—i.e., everybody living on the west side is sick, somehow, from respiratory draw of diesel particulates from the Peace Bridge.

􀂃 Diesel exhaust is a major contributor to premature death on the west side.

􀂃 Pollution harming west side residents from diesel vehicles can cause asthma attacks, work loss days, minor restricted activity days, and many cases of cancer.

Kids with asthma are dying on the west side. So are their grandparents. And many of their moms have cancer. Studies show a lot of them are predominatly Hispanic.

What does a diesel particluate from an idling truck do when it sifts though the air by Peace Bridge southwesterly winds into the lungs of west siders?

The main particulate fraction of diesel exhaust consists of small particles. Wikipedia says: "Because of their small size, inhaled particles may easily penetrate deep into the lungs. The rough surfaces of these particles makes it easy for them to bind with other toxins in the environment, thus increasing the hazards of particle inhalation.

Exposures have been linked with acute short-term symptoms such as headache, dizziness, light-headedness, nausea, coughing, difficult or labored breathing, tightness of chest, and irritation of the eyes and nose and throat. Long-term exposures can lead to chronic, more serious health problems such as cardiovascular disease, cardiopulmonary disease, and lung cancer.

Exposure to diesel exhaust and DPM is a known occupational hazard to truckers, railroad workers, and miners using diesel-powered equipment in underground mines. Adverse health effects have also been observed in the general population at ambient atmospheric particle concentrations well below the concentrations in occupational settings.”

So it’s very harmful to breathe in. That's news? They know that in this country. But apparently not in this county. But what about us—do we accept this in our community?

Now, while there is yet no “Buffalo PBAsthma Coalition”– for it doesn’t yet exist, (--just made it up) maybe there should be one.

If you respect any other media other than BRO and ArtVoice, and if you believe they care about our community, then ask them why they remain so silent over this health issue that so many universities have studied here.

If you know but One person from Buffalo's west side is is sick, or who has died, perhaps linked to this issue, why then keep silent. Why does Buffalo and its community's leaders keep silent?

Isn't it time to stop allowing the money brokers to say what's right for our big-monied core community at the cost of the rest of our little and older kids gasping for breath tonight?

So, why hasn't the media been properly covering this critical health and community issue? This BRO series thanks the true WNY media pioneers, ArtVoice and Professor Bruce Jackson. So many of us have been working on this PBA issue for over a decade, and our only real ongoing and probing WNY community medium has been ArtVoice.

The first bridge we must build is to the truth, for the health and safety of the innocent thousands who live on the west side.