Health concerns have grown in East Palestine after the train crash
Environmental Protection in East Palestine, Ohio, After a Chemical Train Derailed on February 3. Residents and the Local Area urged to stay indoors
Health concerns are lingering in East Palestine, Ohio, after a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed on February 3. Residents were temporarily evacuated from the area two days later to allow for a controlled burn of the chemicals, which sent a large plume of black smoke into the sky.
Those just outside of the area that was evacuated in East Palestine and neighboring Pennsylvania were urged to stay indoors as a precautionary measure. Air samples from neighboring counties showed no worrisome levels.
James Justice said the monitoring has shown normal levels. He said hundreds of data points show the air quality in the town is safe.
The EPA Administrator said at a news conference Thursday that he wanted the community to know they would get to the bottom of the matter. All volatile organic chemicals are being tested. We’re testing for everything. We’re testing for everything that was on that train. We feel confident that we are presenting a picture that will protect the community.
At an emotional community meeting on Wednesday, questions about safety were raised by the crews’ decision to conduct controlled detonations on February 6 of tanks carrying toxic chemicals. The detonationsreleased the chemicals into the air and could possibly kill and increase the risk of cancer.
The commander of the Ohio National Guard said members would take readings inside homes, basements and businesses in order to make sure the air was not polluted before lifting the order.
EPA Detection of Environmental Hazardous Compounds at a Fragment Derailed Norfolk Southern Freight Carrier near East Palestine
On Feb. 3, about three dozen Norfolk Southern freight cars derailed near East Palestine, a town of roughly 4,800. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have indicated that the derailment was likely caused by a wheel bearing failure; a preliminary report is expected next week.
We will be judged on our actions. Norfolk Southern president and CEO Alan Shaw said in the release the company was cleaning up the site in a responsible way while helping East Palestine recover and thrive.
The train was carrying a range of toxic materials, including vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene and butyl acrylate, the US Environmental Protection Agency has said.
There have been many reports of people feeling a burning sensation in their eyes, animals falling ill and a strong smell in the town since the order was lifted on Wednesday.
The EPA, with the National Guard and a contractor, has collected air samples in the East Palestine community to check for some harmful compounds, it said. Air monitoring results posted Tuesday at the EPA’s website include more than a dozen instruments, each with four types of measures – and each stating its “screening level” had not been exceeded.
The agency added that vinyl chloride and hydrogen chloride have not been detected in the 291 homes that have been screened as of Monday. There are 181 homes left to be evaluated in the voluntary indoor air screening program.
Breathing or drinking vinyl chloride can cause health risks. People who have breathed the chemical a long time may be at risk of damage to their bodies.
Other chemicals of concern at the site include phosgene and hydrogen chloride, which are released when vinyl chloride breaks down; butyl acrylate; ethylene glycol monobutyl ether acetate; and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. All these chemicals can change when they break down, creating a stew of toxins in the environment.
The EPA has been monitoring for several other hazardous chemicals, including phosgene and hydrogen chloride, which are released by burning vinyl chloride. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure to phosgene and hydrogen chloride can cause eye irritation, dry burning throat and vomiting.
The North Telford-State Integrated Transportation System (NTSB) Investigation of the 2004 July 7 train crash in East Palestine (New York)
“Now that we are going into a longer term phase, people will be concerned about the long-term exposure that comes at lower levels,” she said.
She encourages people in East Palestine to participate in the EPA’s at-home air screening because she says indoor spaces are an important point of exposure.
Dannemiller recommends residents to wipe down surfaces, especially areas that collect dust, and wash items that absorb smells, such as bed sheets and curtains. She encourages vacuuming in short, sharp periods to prevent the contaminants from moving into the air.
One of the elements under scrutiny is an apparent overheated wheel bearing seen on video before the derailment, the NTSB has said. CNN analysis shows that the apparent overheating began at least 43 minutes before the train derailed.
“You have my personal commitment that the NTSB will CONTINUE to share all information publicly as soon as possible following our analysis,” board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy wrote. “Next: NTSB investigators will thoroughly examine the tank cars once decontaminated. We will always issue urgent safety recommendations.
The NTSB report was described to CNN by a source familiar with the investigation as a “tight presentation of the facts” – and it comes amid mounting questions about how Norfolk Southern, the train’s operator, has handled the incident and the mechanical failures that may have preceded it.
Authorities responding to the crash grew concerned that cars carrying vinyl chloride were at risk of a catastrophic explosion. A black smoke billowed above the small town after officials evacuated the area to conduct a controlled explosion.
Detection of vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials in the Ohio River, and a message to the townspeople of Norfolk Southern, West Virginia
DeWine said it is “absurd” that the law did not require Norfolk Southern to notify officials that a train with hazardous materials was coming through the state.
Almost 500 cubic yards of “vinyl chloride-impacted material” has been removed, according to the Ohio EPA, and cleanup of contaminated dirt near the derailment site continues.
The state determined that the water in the municipal system was safe to drink after five wells had their test results returned without any problems.
The governor said a chemical plume of butyl acrylate in the Ohio River is currently located near Gallipolis, Ohio, and will be near Huntington, West Virginia, sometime tomorrow. Testing results indicate that the chemical is currently well below a level the CDC considers hazardous, he said. No vinyl chloride has been detected in the Ohio River, he added, though agencies will continue sampling river water out of an abundance of caution.
The chemicals are a “contaminant plume” that the Ohio EPA and other agencies have been tracking in real time. Kavalec thought it was moving about a mile an hour.
The “tracking allows for potential closing of drinking water intakes to allow the majority of the chemicals to pass. This strategy, along with drinking water treatment…are both effective at addressing these contaminants and helps ensure the safety of the drinking water supplies,” Kavalec said, adding that they’re pretty confident that the “low levels” of contaminants that remain are not getting passed onto customers.
Authorities recommend that people use bottled water if their water comes from a private source, such as a well.
The Ohio Railway Accident Site, Decaying Traps of Chlorine, Water, and Dust, and a Report of Health Concerns
Over 3000 fish died in Ohio’s waterways due to the spill, according to Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The estimation of the dead fish came after initial testing and sampling by the state agency, Mertz said. The number of fish killed didn’t appear to have increased since the first couple of days.
Some of the pits of dirt that have been dug up measure about 700 feet long and 8 feet deep, Kurt Kollar, the on-scene coordinator for the Ohio EPA’s Office of Emergency Response, said.
There are anecdotal reports of people getting headaches and sore throats, and of animals dying near the train accident, but the Ohio Health Director said there isn’t any reason to think that air quality is the source.
“Anecdotes are challenging because they’re anecdotes,” Vanderhoff said. “Everything that we’ve gathered thus far is really pointing toward very low measurements, if at all.”
The stench of chlorine was so bad this week that it burned the throat and eyes of the man who had been raising their two children.
Representatives of the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, did not attend the community meeting Wednesday, citing safety concerns after it said employees were threatened, further escalating tensions.
“We have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties,” the company said in a release.
Company officials wanted to join the local leaders on Wednesday to give the latest information regarding the clean-up and the results of the air and water testing at the accident site.
The community meeting was expected to go forward on Wednesday evening, but residents were invited by the attorneys to meet with them before the meeting to discuss the effect of the train wreck.
“Is it OK to still be here? Are my kids safe? The people are safe. Is the future of this community safe?” There was a person at the meeting who said that he was from East Palestine. “We all know the severity of that question, and what’s at stake. Let’s find out if some people are exaggerating or not.
Velez wrote on Facebook that he and his wife are not going to expose them to anything in our town because she is a nurse. The risk and anxiety of living in our own home is not worth it.
Does the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Protect East Palestine from the Danger of the Cleveland River Derailment? Ben Ratner and his family are concerned about the environmental legacy of the East Palestine disaster
Still, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency encourages residents who get water from private wells to get those wells tested, because those wells may be closer to the surface than the municipal wells, the governor’s office said.
A new public document shows that potentially contaminated soil still has not been excavated from the site, an important step that experts say should be completed quickly so that toxic materials aren’t further dispersed into the environment.
Kurt Kohler of the Ohio EPA said February 8 that the state would remain involved in long term monitoring and cleaning up the site after the emergency response. Administrator Michael Regan said Tuesday that the EPA will do everything in its power to protect the community.
In a document sent to the EPA and recently made public by the agency, a company contracted by Norfolk Southern for cleanup efforts did not list soil removal among completed activities.
“Contaminated soil will continue (to) leech contaminants, both up into the air, and down into the surrounding ground,” Richard Peltier, an environmental health scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, told CNN in an email. “Every time it rains, a flood of new contaminants will enter the ecosystem.”
CNN asked Norfolk Southern why it hadn’t taken out contaminated soil and filled in the areas that had been damaged, if it had done so to reopen the rail line.
East Palestine resident Ben Ratner and his family are concerned about the longer-term risks that the environmental officials are only beginning to assess.
But the Ratners – who played extras in a Netflix disaster film with eerie similarities to the derailment crisis – still are feeling “an ever-changing mix of emotions and feelings just right from the outset, just the amount of unknown that was there,” said Ben, who owns a cafe a few towns over and isn’t sure he still wants to open another in East Palestine.
The VLA’s Voice: A voice-in-conscience investigation into the dangers of low-level contaminants for the evacuation of a South Central Ohio home
It is hard to invest in things like that or feel good about paying our mortgage if there is no value to them in the future. “That’s something tough to come to grips with.”
As of Tuesday evening, Norfolk Southern has distributed more than $1.5 million in direct financial assistance to more than 1,000 families and some businesses to cover costs related to the evacuation, the company said Wednesday in a news release.
But when Velez returned Monday for a short visit to the neighborhood where his family has lived since 2014 to check his home and his business, he developed a nagging headache that, he said, stayed with him through the night – and left him with a nagging fear.
Misinformation and exaggerations spread online, and state and federal officials have repeatedly offered assurances that air monitoring hasn’t detected any remaining concerns. Even low levels of contaminants that aren’t considered hazardous can create lingering odors or symptoms such as headaches, Ohio’s health director said Tuesday.
As to odor, residents “in the area and tens of miles away may smell odors coming from the site,” Ohio EPA spokesperson James Lee told CNN on Wednesday. “This is because some of the substances involved have a low odor threshold. This means people may smell these contaminants at levels much lower than what is considered hazardous.”
Ben said that the family is limiting its water use because of unknown affects. Velez worries “every time we turn the water on or give my daughter a bath could potentially be hazardous,” he wrote on Facebook.
Why are Norfolk Southern and its Railroads being hush-hush?” a frustrated resident of East Palestine, Pennsylvania, told GoFundMe
He and his family have been Airbnb-hopping 30 minutes from their home since they evacuated, but rental options and their finances are running out, he said, and a friend set up a GoFundMe to help the family.
“Unfortunately, many of us residents are stuck in the same situation and the sad truth is that there is no answer,” he wrote. “There is no viable solution other than to leave and pay a mortgage on a potentially worthless home.”
Hundreds of worried people gathered to hear state officials tell them — as they did earlier in the day — that testing so far has shown local air is safe to breathe and to promise that safety testing of the air and water would continue.
The residents had many questions and demanded more transparency from Norfolk Southern, which did not attend the gathering, citing safety concerns for its staff.
There were ongoing concerns about the smell of smoke, the potential impact on drinking water, and the possibility of threats to pets and wild animals at the meeting.
“Why are they being hush-hush?” The railroad is mentioned by Kathy Dyke. They’re not out here answering questions, that’s for sure. For three days we didn’t even know what was on the train.”
In and around East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, residents said they wanted assistance navigating the financial help the railroad offered hundreds of families who evacuated, and they want to know whether it will be held responsible for what happened.
“The pollution, which continues to contaminate the area around East Palestine, created a nuisance, damage to natural resources and caused environmental harm,” Yost said in a letter to the company.
I believe that Norfolk Southern would not do it out of the goodness of their own heart. There isn’t a lot of goodness in there, according to Shapiro. They need to be forced to act.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan meets with residents of East Palestine, Ohio, after a deadly chemical train derailed on Feb. 14, 2002
On Thursday, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency went to East Palestine, Ohio, to see the scene of the hazardous chemicals train derailing and said that Norfolk Southern will be held accountable.
The EPA has full authority to enforce over the crisis, according to Administrator Michael S. Regan.
“I will use the full enforcement authority of this agency, and so will the federal government, to be sure that this company is held accountable,” Regan told CNN.
Some residents said that the chemical smell left them with headaches and pains in their throat. Plus, officials estimate thousands of fish were killed by contamination washing down streams and rivers.
During a CNN town hall Wednesday night, residents of East Palestine, Ohio, demanded answers about the train wreck and the cleaning up, as well as reassurance about their future.
Some of the efforts to clean up the train wreck was observed by Regan during his visit. While the state EPA has the primary responsibility over the scene, Regan noted the federal arm is ready to provide aid when needed.
The governor asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services to send teams toEast Palestine, where a train derailed and sparked a dayslong fire in February.
Emergency response teams are prepared to prevent certain pollutants from washing into local waterways when the weather gets nicer, according to Attorney General Mike DeWine.
DeWine said the Ohio Department of Agriculture continues to assure Ohioans that its food supply is safe and the risk to livestock remains low following the train derailment.
Mayor Trent Conaway: Is the Air a Clean, Dirty Vacuum?” He told reporters after the Ohio Transportation Authority Collision
“There (were) two options: We either detonate those tanks, or they detonate themselves,” Mayor Trent Conaway told a group of reporters at Wednesday’s meeting. “Yes, harmful chemicals went into the air. I am truly sorry, but that is the only option we had. They were going to blow up if we didn’t do that.
Conaway spoke with reporters Wednesday night. I have the village behind me and I will do whatever it takes to make this right. I am not leaving and I am not going somewhere.
The company did not show up at the meeting, which was a slap in the face according to the man who lives less than half a mile from the crash.
Most people didn’t want to leave but they had to. He said that all the people who had to go home complained about their smells, headaches, and sickness. “I have gone back a few times, and the smell does make you sick. It hurts your head.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-thursday/index.html
Reply to “Comment on ‘Stability of the Ohio Village of East Palestine’ by J.M. Cozza, the principal investigator for the Ohio Railroad Commission,” by R.D. Biden
I was very upset that they didn’t show up for the meeting. He said the public deserves to be transparent. “The public deserves to have the latest information. We must hold this company accountable, so I promise you we will.
Jami Cozza, who is living in a hotel paid for by the railroad, is staying near a creek that is polluted because her family has lived there for generations.
Cozza explained the train company told her it was safe to return home after conducting air testing. She insisted on the company testing her soil and water, and then a toxicologist found her house to be unsafe.
Cozza said that she would be sitting in that house right now if she had not thrown a fit, since they told her it was safe.
“My concern is how many of those kids are laying in their bed in East Palestine right now that are not safe,” she said. I don’t trust them.
In order to help check out the situation at the Ohio village where the train derailed, the Biden administration has enlisted federal medical experts, who are on hand at the request of the governor.
“This request for medical experts includes, but is not limited to, physicians and behavioral health specialists,” DeWine wrote in a letter to the CDC. “Some community members have already seen physicians in the area but remain concerned about their condition and possible health effects – both short- and long-term.”
An Attorney General’s Report on the Ohio-Pennsylvania Trajectory Derailment: Investigation of a 100-car Freight Train
The Biden administration approved the request and began using teams from both the federal agencies for public health testing.
That is in addition to aid the Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing, according to Jean-Pierre, who noted Thursday that the train derailment situation is “much more expansive” than what FEMA can offer.
The federal support boost to a community of some 5,000 people along the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line comes amid some residents’ growing concerns that some areas may not be safe to live in.
On Thursday, the head of the federal Environmental Agency Administration visited East Palestine and made it a point to assure residents that the agency has their backs.
The mess thatNorfolk Southern created and the trauma they inflicted will be paid for. “In no way, shape or form will Norfolk Southern get off the hook for the mess that they created.”
Federal transportation investigators are working vigorously to determine what caused the 100-car freight train to crash in Ohio, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday in a thread of tweets.
There were sparks from an overheated wheel as the train passed through Salem, Ohio on February 3, according to two videos obtained by CNN. Bright light and sparks are seen emanating from one of the rail cars.
Homendy, whose agency is responsible for investigating various transportation crashes from aviation to railways, implored the public on Twitter not to speculate about the cause of the crash.
The East Palestine School Detonations Revisited: “I’m afraid I’m going to lose my baby,” Mayor Trent Conaway told CNN
During an intense community town hall meeting Wednesday in a high school gym, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway addressed the February 6 controlled detonations, saying the only option was to release the chemicals manually or risk greater danger to residents.
The company initially said it would make $1,000 payments to residents who lived within a mile of the spill evacuation zone. But the company has since decided to pay each resident in the entire 44413 ZIP code that money, a spokesman for the company told CNN.
The residents were given the go ahead to return to their homes on February 8th after the monitoring in East Palestine did not detect any elevated chemicals of concern.
When they went back on the 10th, they decided it was not possible for them to raise their kids here. There was a horrible smell that made me think of hair perming solution.
“When we left, I had a rash on my skin on my arm, and my eyes were burning for a few days after that,” said Greathouse, who has two preschool-age children.
Greathouse said that the smell was so strong it made him sick. I wanted to leave quickly to get what I needed. I only took a few pieces of clothes, because I’m afraid to put them on my children, because the clothes smelled like chemicals.
She says she’s also kept her children out of preschool since the derailment. The teacher has reassured her that students are only using bottled water, but she is still concerned about other types of contamination.
I want my son in the preschool because I like his teachers, but I also know I have to be careful. Some teachers have even expressed their concerns about the air quality,” Greathouse said.
A Team of Experts in East Palestine to Investigate Environmental and Chemical Exposures after the Bethe Analdehn Derailment
“We are very fortunate that we rent our home. Didn’t think I would ever say that. I feel awful for my landlord, but I just can’t risk my family’s health.”
The water from East Palestine is safe to drink, but will continue to be tested regularly to make sure it remains clean, according to a Wednesday update from DeWine.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also says it expects to have a team on site Monday, according to a CDC spokesperson who requested that they not be named because they weren’t authorized to share the details. The team will conduct an Assessment of Chemical Exposure investigation, which surveys the impact of a chemical release on people and the community.
The volatile organic compounds released by the controlled explosion can cause symptoms similar to those reported by some East Palestine residents, including headache, sore throat, and nose and eye irritation, but experts say it’s extremely difficult to connect chemical exposures to health effects.
Haynes, who has experience investigating toxic exposures in communities, says she is seeking approval from her university’s Institutional Review Board to start a study in East Palestine to help give residents more information on their chemical exposures in air, water and soil.
“They need all the help they can get,” she said. “This is a major emergency. This is a major disaster. They need assistance from us.
“How safe is it, really?” said DeSanzo, who lives about half a mile from the derailment with her two grade-school-age children. “It’s not in all these people’s heads that are getting rashes, that are having the conjunctivitis, the pinkeye, from chemicals.”
After the derailment, DeSanzo evacuated with her kids just over the state line in Pennsylvania, where her uncle had an empty duplex. The floor and couch was where they slept.
When she came home this week, DeSanzo says, she aired out her house, changed the furnace filter and washed their sheets and clothes. She says that her kids were coughing, and that they all went to an immediate care clinic.
DeSanzo said that the doctor had advised people in East Palestine to go to the hospital for a blood test because she had seen similar symptoms. She hasn’t gotten the blood test yet.
DeSanzo was treated by a small group of residents at the Salem Regional Medical Center, who had symptoms such as sore throats and respiratory problems. She said that the emergency room has only seen a small number of patients from East Palestine.
According to Pietrzak, the facilities and primary care providers are ready to help anyone in need of medical attention and are working with the County’s Health Department and other agencies who are watching the situation.
Natalie Rine, who directs the Central Ohio Poison Center, said the poison control centers are getting calls from people in East Palestine. If chemicals are a health concern, experts who staff the help lines can help.
When does a young woman feel the effects of chemical sensitivities? An Environmental Health Professional’s Report to the Harvard University Environmental Health Department
DeSanzo says she wants to leave but can’t afford to. She pays $400 a month for a mortgage that is less than half of the other homes she has looked at in the area.
Ayla’s parents are in Leetonia, 20 minutes from East Palestine, to make sure that their home is safe and keep her daughters there.
“I did allow my 4-year-old to return to preschool, which is in the East Palestine Elementary School. She went back for two days and developed another rash on her hands and started complaining of itching, so I pulled her back out,” Ayla said.
The chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard University believes that it is the right thing to do.
People who are very sensitive to chemicals can feel it, but a monitor cannot pick it up. “There’s not a great diagnostic pathway for chemical sensitivities. A lot of it is based on clinical symptoms.
Nadeau and other environmental health experts advise people who are having symptoms to see a health care provider, primarily for medical care but also so their case can be documented.
If a group of people suddenly have a rash and complain, that helps doctors to come together with other institutions such as the CDC to do more fact-finding.
The Ohio State Department of Environmental Health and an EPA Health Clinic in East Palestine after the February 3 Decay of a Norfolk Southern Freight Train
Ohio state officials have opened a health clinic in East Palestine for residents who believe they may have health issues as a result of the derailment, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.
An EPA official told CNN that Michael Regan was going to return to the town Tuesday to meet with residents and local officials.
The visit comes as skepticism and anxiety spread in the small town of 5,000 while reports mount of rashes, headaches, nausea and other symptoms that residents fear could be related to the February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train and crews’ subsequent release of the toxic chemical vinyl chloride from the wreck.
The air quality will still be monitored by the EPA as work continues at the site to dig up the soils and haul away the rail cars.
We shouldn’t say that we’re done looking for health impacts in this community. Some may not occur until later,” said Haynes, adding that anyone experiencing health symptoms should take them seriously and call the poison control center.
According to the EPA, Norfolk Southern installed booms and dams to limit the flow of water from two areas where fish died.
In the meantime, water intakes from the Ohio River that were shut off Sunday “as a precautionary measure” were reopened after sampling found “no detections of the specific chemicals from the train derailment,” according to news releases from the Greater Cincinnati Water Works and Northern Kentucky Water District.
Julian said water measurements have been below the level of concern and that Maysville Utilities took precautionary measures in temporarily shutting down their Ohio River intake valve due to the public concern.
The East Palestine Railroad Company, an investment in safety solutions, and the impact of the railroad accident on local communities and businesses in the wake of the EPA’s Cleanup
DeWine added that the remediation effort near the crash site was ongoing. About 4,600 cubic yards of soil and 1.1 million gallons contaminated water have been removed so far.
DeWine said there was a concern by citizens that the railroad started, the tracks were on, and didn’t have the soil dealt with. “So, under the administrator’s order, that soil will be removed. The soil will have to be removed and the tracks must be taken up.
As skepticism spreads about the safety of the air and water, some local business say they’ve seen fewer customers, despite calls to return to normal life.
A stylist at a hair salon also told the station there’s no doubt the salon lost business and that customers may be worried about what may be in the water washing their hair.
A lot of businesses are already suffering because they don’t have people who will come here, says the local greenhouse owner.
A number of officials, including US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have demanded accountability and called for greater safety regulations after the toxic derailment.
Crews are still working to respond to the freight disaster in East Palestine as community members worry about possible adverse health effects from the toxic materials released when dozens of cars derailed after a likely mechanical failure.
So, what now? The EPA has taken control of the Cleanup, and as a result, Norfolk Southern must foot the bill for any work done by the agency.
“We recognize that we have a responsibility, and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine,” the railroad said. “We are committed to thoroughly and safely cleaning the site, and we are reimbursing residents for the disruption this has caused in their lives.”
The company has committed more than $6 million to date in East Palestine, it said, including $3.8 million in direct financial assistance to families impacted by the accident.
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Alan Shaw responded to criticisms from the transportation secretary and a senator, stating that the company invests more than $1 billion a year in safety solutions.
Shaw said that it was clear that the safety culture and investments in safety did not prevent the accident. “We need to take a look at this and see what we can do differently and what we can do better.”
The Ohio-Pennsylvania Collision and the War Between the General Relatively Dwarfs, as declared by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office
The crash took place just a few hundred yards from the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, but the governor of Pennsylvania praised the EPA for taking care of the mess.
Shaw declined to comment in the CNBC interview on potential causes, citing the investigation. He also said Norfolk Southern is fully cooperating with the NTSB and the Federal Railroad Administration to determine the cause.
He said that it was because of the concerns they’ve heard that people want to be able to go and get an answer to their medical questions.
President Biden called the EPA’s order common sense. This is the mess of the people. They should clean it up,” the president said of Norfolk Southern in an Instagram post.
“I know this order cannot undo the nightmare that families in this town have been living with. It will start to deliver justice for the pain Norfolk Southern has caused.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is furious with Norfolk Southern, telling NPR on Wednesday that it had “given the middle finger to the good people of Pennsylvania and Ohio” in the way it had handled its response. He said that authorities on his side of the border would be watching the water.
Environmental Protection and Public Works in East Palestine after a Train Derailment: The Trump Administration’s First “Peaceful Action”
Regan and DeWine had glasses of tap water from the home of an East Palestine,Ohio, resident so they could quell concerns about the water’s safety.
Pennsylvania’s governor – who also ordered evacuations after the derailment – alleged Tuesday that the train operator gave officials “inaccurate information” and “refused to explore or articulate alternative courses of action,” in the days following the toxic wreck.
He will hold the company accountable for injecting unneeded risk into the crisis.
Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw said that his company has been aligned with the EPA and local efforts on the ground in East Palestine since the train derailment.
Shaw’s company monitors air and water quality, and has conducted hundreds of tests with thousands of data points, all of which have come back clean.
The toxic derailed, which upended life in the community, has prompted calls for better rail safety and questions about laws surrounding the movement of toxic substances.
President Biden accused the Trump administration of limiting the government’s ability to strengthen rail safety measures, while calling on Congress to implement rail safety measures.
“This is more than a train derailment or a toxic waste spill – it’s years of opposition to safety measures coming home to roost,” Biden wrote in an Instagram post.
As crews continue cleanup efforts and officials promise accountability, East Palestine residents are still dealing with fears surrounding potential impacts from the toxic wreck.
Still, as worries remain, the state opened a new health clinic for East Palestine residents to address the reports of rashes, headaches, nausea and other symptoms.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-wednesday/index.html
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) said wetlands, water and soil are protected from chemical threat in East Palestine, Ohio, during the November 11 train hijacking
The administrator of the EPA said Tuesday that he was not discounting the symptoms but asked anyone concerned to seek medical attention.
I believe people when they say they face adverse impacts. And what we’re doing is we’re asking them to seek medical attention … then we can take that information and add that as part of our response,” Regan said. People are not being discounted at all. We just ask that they get medical help when we conduct our investigations.
“We need our town cleaned up, we need our residents to feel safe in their homes,” Conaway said at Tuesday news conference. “That’s the number one thing. If you don’t feel safe at home, you aren’t going to feel safe anywhere.
She said recently that she doesn’t want to walk away from her yard where there is a vat of maple syrup bubbling. But as she ran through the questions she had about planting a garden, eating the fruit from her trees and letting her horses drink from the nearby creek in the wake of the chemical burn, Ms. Mibuck conceded: “I don’t feel completely safe doing that. I hate that.”
When the Norfolk Southern freight train careened off the tracks this month and left a fiery heap of wreckage on the outskirts of East Palestine, Ohio, a town of roughly 4,700 people, it upended an area where generations of families could afford to buy acres of land, raise horses and plant gardens, hunt deer and birds and build lives undisturbed by the chaos of bigger cities nearby. Although farming provides only a small number of jobs in the immediate area, many residents say that raising livestock and working the land are profoundly important to their way of life.
Through a long global pandemic, national political tensions and the stress of inflation, the land, the water and the fresh air had been a source of comfort and safety. There has been a chemical threat spreading through the region. The EPA said substances such as vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl were released into the air, water and soil.
What he is saying after a burn: How doctors and pulmonologists look at the water well and in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, area
Who is he? There is a clinical instructor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University and a pulmonologist in the area.
What are people saying? Proia said pulmonary doctors in the area were bracing for a rise in patients after the derailment and controlled burn, but that he hadn’t experienced it.
Respiratory illness hasn’t come in for us, we really didn’t see it. Some patients will say, perhaps a rash or a foul smell, because they have heard what we have heard. But really no overt shortness of breath, or respiratory failure has been connected to this.
It’s important to remember that you only will find what you’re looking for. It’s not clear what else is out there, especially after a fire with a bunch of different chemicals.
I’ve authorized testing of all of the wells on the Pennsylvania side and the public water system to ensure that local residents have the comfort of knowing what’s coming out of the tap is safe. We’ve seen no concerning readings yet, but we’re going to continue to test for months and months and months, if not years.
Medical experts in East Palestine, Ohio, are urging residents to contact their local health care before taking their medications following the wreck of a toxic train
Nearly three weeks since the toxic train wreck in a small Ohio community, the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release its preliminary report on the derailment.
East Palestine resident Jim Stewart says that the wreck destroyed his dreams of retiring and selling his house soon, and he worries what the home’s value is going to look like now that it has been damaged. He said he’s afraid to take his dog out, because of the strong stench, and wonders if he’ll be able to plant his tomatoes during the summer, after officials said the soil was also contaminated by chemicals.
The train was travelling 49 miles per hour between Alliance, Ohio, and Salem, Ohio, but it slowed to just 33 miles per hour between Salem and East Palestine.
The mother and teacher in East Palestine said her son has had “bloody noses” every day since she and her family returned.
Another resident, Josh Hickman, said he is still staying at a hotel as he doesn’t feel safe returning home, but he’s had to come into the village a few times and experienced symptoms including headaches, dizziness and blood from his nose – and on Tuesday, sought treatment at the emergency room.
Trent Conaway said Wednesday that East Palestine was getting everything it needed, except answers. “We need answers, as far as the health concerns.”
During the town hall, Ohio’s governor stressed he did not want to minimize any medical issues potentially linked to the derailment, saying that’s the reason he requested medical experts to the community.
Medical teams from the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services will also be on the ground this week at DeWine’s request, he said Friday.
The state also opened a health assessment clinic Tuesday for residents who worry their symptoms could be linked to the wreck. The clinic includes nurses, toxicologists and mental health professionals, and can provide residents with referrals if needed, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-thursday/index.html
Community Leaders, Deputy Mayor, and Supervisor DeWine, said in a town hall presentation on contaminated water and soil, Agriculture, and Water Resources
Shaw said the community will be investing in the long-term health of the community and getting the clean up right. “I’m going to see this through, and we’re going to be here. And we’re going to work with these community leaders to help you thrive.”
DeWine said 4,588 cubic yards of soil and 1.1 million gallons of contaminated water have been removed so far from East Palestine. The soil can be removed from the railroad tracks, according to the governor.
“Since I (got) home from evacuating, I’m still not using the water because I never know if … they’re telling the truth or it’s a lie,” resident Nene Stewart said during the town hall. I drink bottled water. I can’t. I’m not comfortable with what they’re saying. I don’t know who’s telling the truth.”
