According to an article written by the NY Post, the air we’re breathing in the subways is unsafe (https://nypost.com/2023/05/13/subway-has-alarmingly-high-pollution-levels-study-finds/). This is based on a study conducted by NYU researchers in December, 2021. According to the study, levels of airborne iron particles underground were 126 times more than the average levels outdoors.

It wasn’t only the platforms found to be unsafe; the air quality on the trains themselves was under par. “Nine lines — the 1, 3, 5, 6, B, C, F, M, and R — all showed average concentrations of particles higher than the EPA’s safety standard while traveling below ground, although they were about half as polluted as the platforms themselves.” The union was quoted in the article as saying “We are evaluating the study, which raises many questions, but it’s already clear that more testing and analysis is needed. We will be pressing the MTA on this issue and will be monitoring the situation.” What has this administration done that leads you to believe they will “press the MTA” on this matter of utmost importance to our health? They let us die during the pandemic without even as much as an attempt to shut down the system to protect us. They haven’t gotten us a dime in hazard pay for putting our lives at risk. (The “essential worker bonus” was a way to give us a raise closer to the inflation rate without having the employer be forced to compound the raises in future years. If it was hazard pay for the work performed during the pandemic, people who worked the pandemic and then retired would get it. Conversely, those who didn’t work the pandemic who were recently hired would not get it.)

Anything short of around-the-clock scrubbing of the tunnel walls to remove the system of steel dust, rat feces and the like, will not be enough to get this system up to par with the EPA standards. It’s not unheard of; they do it in Los Angeles, you just have to be willing to spend the money (https://thesource.metro.net/2013/04/11/subway-tunnel-washing-makes-a-difference-check-out-these-pics-of-grime-free-tunnel-walls/). You ever see those Camp Lejeune commercials? The ones that say if you lived or worked in the camp between 1953 and 1987, you may be eligible for a lawsuit due to water contamination. That’s what needs to be done here but for air pollution. If you ever worked for the MTA and had a serious health problem that could be traced back to high concentrations of lead in the body, you should be allowed to sue. Those of us without any current health issue should be allowed to wear masks at work and a real effort should be made by the MTA to install air purification systems in the system both on and off the trains. For those of you who are new here, the right to wear a mask at work is only temporary due to Covid. In fact, even during the early days of Covid we were told not to wear a mask because it didn’t conform with the uniform policy (https://www.cato.org/blog/new-york-mta-forbade-employees-protecting-themselves-wearing-masks) . I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I’m really starting to believe that the mask prohibition was actually done to prevent us from living long enough to receive our pension money for a large amount of years. We can’t collect our pensions if we’re dead. I also know that they didn’t want us to “scare the public” with our masks during Covid so maybe they had that same train of thought with masks for air quality. However we’re in a much different time politically. Not only did we lose over a million passengers per day that never came back and many people who did return are just not paying the fare, but we were also able to balance the budget through 2027 (https://new.mta.info/press-release/mta-announces-balanced-budget-through-2027-july-financial-plan) and INCREASE service on many lines during the off-peak hours, thanks to progressive lawmakers in New York State who realize that you can’t run a public transit system relying so heavily on fare revenue. So WEAR THAT MASK and don’t worry about scaring a few passengers. The MTA will be OK (not that the MTA losing passengers due to “being scared” by seeing us wear masks was a good enough reason to risk our lives anyway).