Last week, I mentioned that coal is being shipped by freight trains in open bed railroad cars. Here in the Pacific Northwest they want to open up more terminals to ship this coal to China, etc. by way of ships. This will bring even more rail road cars full of coal. I have two objections to this plan: (1) When coal is burned, it contributes to greenhouse gases which in turn effects our weather patterns. (2) The coal being shipped by rail road will litter the countryside with coal dust which will then get into our rivers where some people get their drinking water and some of this dust will be blown onto farm lands where our food is being raised. Coal dust is not completely harmless as it cause black lung disease which is uncureable and other lung and breathing problems. I googled Coal Dust Dangers and found a lot of pros and cons on this subject. Trucks are required to secure their loads which includes putting a cover on open bed trucks and I feel that rail road cars should do the same.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:26:41 +0000