Evaluation of environmental safety is very important for human health. It is known that railway transportation is a clean system with low CO₂ emission, but there is little information about evaluation of ecotoxicological safety in the railway transportation system. Here we report on some ecotoxicological safety tests and bioremediation research for PCB contaminated ballast stones. The former is an introduction of biological methods used in our laboratory for the evaluation of environmental safety that can be applied to railway environments. The latter is an example of bioremediation research using a PCB degrading microorganism. Since there is no good physico-chemical method to remove PCB contamination from ballast stones, bioremediation might lead us to the solution for environmental safety.

Copyright (c) 2001 Railway Technical Research Institute