Sabini: MTA Should Use Lung-Safe Cleaning Chemicals
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Standing in front of one of the busiest transit hubs in New York City, Sabini , ranking member of the Transportation Committee, called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority today to use lung-safe chemicals when cleaning its vehicles and stations.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority should switch to lung-safe chemical products when cleaning its vehicles and stations, state Senator John Sabini declared last week.

Sabini (D-Jackson Heights), the ranking member of the senate's Transportation Committee, declared: "On a hot New York day, when advisories have gone out telling people to use mass transit because of an ozone alert, we drive them into a steamy underground subway system that is cleaned with chemicals that aggravate our respiratory systems even more."

Standing in front of the 74th Street Roosevelt Avenue subway station and the Victor Moore Arcade bus terminal in Jackson Heights, which serve more than 40,000 passengers daily, Sabini stated, "Let's not add to the rapidly-growing problems of asthma by using chemicals that make breathing difficult and are harmful for the lungs."

Sabini was joined at the busy transit hub by Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign, a transit users advocacy group.

Russianoff, whose daughter suffers from asthma, stated, "Transit officials should play their part in reducing asthma triggers in the environment. The toxic fumes of harsh cleaning agents add to the daily assault on a commuter's lungs."

Sabini pointed out that asthma has become the most prevalent work-related lung disease in America, and is also one of the fastest-growing diseases in the country among low-income and minority people, who use public transportation the most.

Sabini's Western Queens district, like many other neighborhoods in New York City, has a significantly large population of people most at risk for asthma and other respiratory problems, he pointed out.

During the hot summer months, he added, high humidity and the greenhouse effect of heat absorbed by vehicle interiors that cannot escape, take an especially negative toll on people with respiratory problems.

According to the American Lung Association, Sabini said, ammonia, chlorine, sulfur dioxide and hydrocloric acid are among common cleaning solvents and chemical irritants that have been proven to be asthma triggers.

And according to the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC), he said, asthma rates have gone up 41 percent for males and 105 percent for females over the past 15 years, suggesting that more women are commuting and working in traditionally male held jobs such as cleaning transit systems, are being exposed to chemical irritants.

Meanwhile, asthma rates for American children and adults in general have also gone up over the past decade, according to the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, Sabini said.

"People exposed to respiratory irritants such as those mentioned above will frequently begin wheezing and experiencing other asthma symptoms immediately after exposure," Sabini.

The effort to have the MTA substitute more health-favoring cleaning products for the ones it now uses is complementary to another attempt to improve safety for New York City transit customers, Sabini said.

Previously, he said, he and Congressmember Anthony Weiner (D-Queens/Brooklyn) called on the MTA to install cellphone service on subway station platforms. The cleaning product drive also complements a bill Sabini introduced to require air quality testing in neighborhoods near airports, where asthma indices are higher than average and a single airplane emits as much exhaust as 3,000 cars.

Although Sabini has introduced legislation that prohibits the MTA from using certain asthma irritants in its cleaning solvents, he stressed that establishing a lung-safe cleaning process is a simple policy matter that the MTA can adopt operationally.

"New Yorkers come across enough harmful irritants every day, especially in the summertime," Sabini, who is running for re-election this year, said. "Let's protect the health of our 7 million daily transit riders and thousands of transit workers with this simple policy."