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It takes 45 minutes to go from end to end and how many do that in the first place for line 2? The average time for me is 25 minutes unless there is a problem on the line with 1-8 minutes on the platform, depending on the time of the day. Can't say much about 1 since I don't spend much time on it in the first place and my trips are short ones.
Such an app already exist just look up Citymapper it uses information from your GPS location and wifi as well as Next bus data along with standard travel times.
Iron dust is quite toxic. Putonium, one of the most dangerous metals known, is virtually harmless if eaten, deadly if inhaled. Same with Mercury. It's not what you swallow from fillings that's the concern, it's the gaseous form if inhaled. In all fairness, filling amalgam is much more stable in almost all cases that initial concern indicated.
Not sure why you are trying to let the TTC off the hook. This is basic OHSA. As an employer, the TTC has an obligation to do it's it's due diligence and to provide a healthy and safe workplace, especially when they are made aware of a health and safety issue. It would be like receiving the report on the Russell Hill crash and not doing a fucking thing to change their procedures.
It just might get the TTC off their broken rail and start a 'hygiene' program again. Stopping the dust is going to be impossible, but just like good housekeeping, you sweep up and clean as it gets dirty. The TTC had best invest in some tunnel washing trains and quick.
It's a damn good question, and there have been many over the years...at the time the tunnels were a *lot* cleaner than they are now. Does anyone else remember when the tunnels were cleaner? It's not just the tunnels that are black now, it's the stations too. And not just a shadow, but solid black grime.
Excellent post, and the following pertains to the GO locomotive emissions (ostensibly less with Tier IV, but still questionable) and all diesel particulates, but also illustrates how pervasive toxic particles can be, brake dust or otherwise.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...-from-toxic-air-penetrate-the-heart-x2gch8htnDeadly diesel particles from toxic air penetrate the heart
Kat Lay, Health Correspondent
April 27 2017, 12:01am, The Times
A new study has shown how airborne particles get into the bloodstream and gather at points of weakness, causing heart problemsLewis Whyld/Press Association
Scientists have proved that deadly particles of pollution can get into the bloodstream by asking volunteers to breathe in microscopic specks of gold.
Research has shown that particles a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair can pass through the lungs. It was demonstrated for the first time that they gather in the most vulnerable areas of blood vessels.
Experts said that the study provided the “missing link” between airborne nanoparticles, often generated by vehicle emissions, and the increase in levels of poor heart health as pollution levels rise.
Campaigners said it added fresh weight to their calls for government action on air quality.
[...]
As part of the study, published in the journal ACS Nano, participants inhaled nanoparticles of gold. The harmless specks can be easily measured in the body, unlike carbon.
Gold was detected in the participants’ blood and urine within 24 hours, and could still be measured three months after the initial exposure.
The study also asked patients at high risk of stroke who were due to have surgery to inhale the gold. Analysis of clogging material removed from their arteries the next day showed that the particles accumulated in fatty deposits inside blood vessels.
Mark Miller, lead researcher, from the University of Edinburgh, said: “These findings suggest that ultrafine nanoparticles in air pollution may well do the same thing. They will enter the blood and accumulate at sites of vascular disease. And while gold is not a very reactive particle, environmental particles are highly reactive. It doesn’t take large amounts of these particles. If they reach these susceptible areas it can have serious health consequences.”
[...]
Current clean-air regulations focus on larger particles rather than nanoparticles. Yet the scientists believe that the really small particles are the most dangerous. Professor Newby suggested that scientists were looking in the wrong place.
Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, which co-funded the research, said: “There is no doubt that air pollution is a killer and this study brings us a step closer to solving the mystery of how air pollution damages our cardiovascular health.
[...]
http://www.railway-technology.com/features/feature-air-in-underground-subways-harming-health/Is the air in underground subways harming our health?
New research from Southampton University has shown that ultrafine dust particles – which are unregulated in the UK – are metal rich and more likely to cause health problems, such as cancer and emphysema, in workers and passengers than the larger, regulated dust particles.
In March 2013, new research from the University of Southampton was published in Environmental Science & Technology, which raised a question mark over how safe ultrafine dust is to workers and regular travellers on the London Underground.
The Southampton team - which included the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) - collected ultrafine airborne dust (PM0.1) from a mainline underground station underneath an airport in Europe, as well as larger particles: coarse PM10 (which have a diameter of ten micrometres or less) and ?ne PM2.5 (which have a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less).
"The ultrafine dust was at least as rich in metals as the larger dust particles and, therefore, taken together with their increased surface area to volume ratio, it is of potential significance in understanding the risks of working and travelling in the underground," said Matt Loxham, PhD student at the University of Southampton, and part of the study's research team.
"These tiny dust particles have the potential to penetrate the lungs and the body more easily, posing a risk to someone's health."
According to the researchers, while coarse dust is deposited in the conducting airways of the body (such as nasal passages and bronchi) and the fine dust is able to reach the bronchioles (smaller airways), the ultrafine dust can reach the deepest areas of the lungs and into the alveoli.
They concluded that there is evidence that ultrafine dust can evade the protective barrier lining the airways (the epithelium), and enter underlying tissue and the circulation, meaning that the toxicity of ultrafine particles may not be limited to the airways, but may involve the cardiovascular system, liver, brain and kidneys.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) confirms in its Dust in the Workplace report that "the two most serious health problems caused by dust are cancers of the lungs, throat and nose, and other lung conditions called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) that includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema."
[...]
While conclusions about London Underground's air quality cannot be drawn from research from another underground station in Europe - Loxham says there are "large differences in airborne particle concentrations across different underground railway networks" caused by a number of different factors, such as ventilation and braking systems, wheel type and system age - the report could mean that PM0.1 particles are tested in the future.
Loxham believes the reason they are not currently regulated is due to the "relative infancy of research on the potential health effects of PM0.1 compared to PM10 and PM2.5".
He said: "In our study, although PM0.1 were the least-represented PM fraction in terms of mass, their mass concentration nonetheless exceeded World Health Organisation 24-hour limits for both PM10 and PM2.5 [24 hour average particle exposure of 50 and 25 mg/m3 for PM10 and PM2.5, respectively], while we found underground PM0.1 to be at least as rich in transition metals as PM10 and PM2.5."
While there is much previously published work suggesting the air quality in environments such as steel mills or welding plants, which are rich in airborne metals can impact negatively on health, little research has been carried into the effects of working in an underground railway station - a similarly metal-rich environment.
[...]
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-38274792
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/london-charge-driving-pollution-diesel-ban
