On a crisp late afternoon in November, pickup basketball and a softball game are going strong in Cicero’s Hawthorne Community Park. Nearby, a young girl plays in a yard, chasing a border collie with a plastic rake. A steady rumble, punctuated by loud honks and mechanical gasps, underscores the sounds of laughter and sports. These are the sounds of the Cicero Intermodal Facility across the street, where giant cranes shift cargo containers between trains and trucks 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It’s one of the largest freight transfer points in the country’s largest rail hub – one-third of U.S. rail freight passes through Chicago, and more rail freight passes through Illinois than any other state.



To the southeast of Hawthorne Park, one can see the twin smokestacks of the Crawford Generating Station coal-burning power plant. The plant has been the focus of local and national attention regarding the health risk posed by emissions of particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and other contaminants. But few people realize that the Cicero rail yard might be as much of a health risk as the coal plant to the surrounding largely Latino, low-income population.



Diesel exhaust from locomotives, trucks and other rail yard equipment is a likely carcinogen and contains similar components found in coal-burning power plant emissions: particulate matter, smog and particulate-forming nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other toxic compounds. Diesel exhaust can be of particular concern since it’s emitted close to the ground and contains more of the ultra fine particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs and cross into the blood stream.



According to a Chicago Reporter analysis, residents within a half mile of the Cicero and other Chicago area rail yards could suffer a cancer risk more ...