TTC conducting year-long air quality study of subway system

It’s been over 20 years, but the TTC says they are currently conducting a year-long air quality assessment that is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

The study will be taken on by third-party consultants and Toronto Public Health. The TTC said it will look at employee health benefits and cost $500,000, which will be paid for by the TTC.

“What Toronto Public Health will do is they will then analyze the same information from a public health perspective and look at someone riding the subway for 10 or 15 minutes a day might have a different exposure than someone who is in the system for seven or eight hours a day,” said TTC spokesperson Stuart Green.

READ MORE: TTC operator taken off the job for refusing to remove mask after air quality report: union

The push to address air quality in the TTC subway system comes after a study was released in spring that said it’s 10 times more polluted than the air outside.

“We know it’s been several years – 22 years in fact – since the last time the TTC did an air quality study of the subway,” said Green.

“We have taken a number of measures in that time to reduce the amount of airborne particulate matter, we have a large vacuum car, new subways with better ventilation systems.”

READ MORE: High levels of pollution found on TTC subway system: study

Researchers found signs of a significant steel source in the particulate matter on the subway platforms and pollution levels across the system were three times higher than Montreal’s Metro and five times higher than Vancouver’s SkyTrain.

“The Health Canada study that was done is actually almost 10-year-old data, it was about time to do that study again and get that reassurance that what we know about our subway is that it’s a safe place for our employees and safe place for our customers,” said Green.

The study was released by Environmental Science and Technology and done in partnership with Health Canada and prompted concern among some TTC workers.