Days after a train carrying hazardous materials derailed in northeastern Ohio and caught fire fueling fears of a “potential explosion,” authorities assured evacuees they could safely return to their homes . But more than a week after the accident, Maura Todd is not entirely convinced.
To suggest otherwise are the headaches and nausea that hit her family last weekend, and the acrid smell similar to a mixture of nail polish remover and burnt rubber. Todd says that on Saturday he was already planning to pack up and leave East Palestine, Ohio, and move to Kentucky with his family and his three Miniature Schnauzers, at least for a while. “I haven’t missed a press conference, and on no occasion have I heard anything that made me think it was a decision based on real data,” Todd, 44, told the Washington Post. “The impression is that we are not being given enough information.”
After the incident, local and federal officials repeatedly told residents that the air was once again breathable, and that the water was not contaminated. Yet, more than a week after the derailment of the Norfolk Southern company train – the explosion of which caused very high flames and a cloud of smoke that spread over much of the town, prompting the authorities to carry out a controlled combustion of the substances remaining toxic – the inhabitants told the Washington Post that they have not yet been able to read a complete list of the substances present on the train at the time of the accident.
Without sufficient information, residents and experts said they have doubts about how safe it really is to return to their homes, just a week after the release of contaminants into the air and nearby waterways. A state official confirmed that there had been a fish kill in some canals, and those returning to a nearby Pennsylvania town were instructed to open the windows, ventilate the rooms and clean all surfaces with bleach.
“The more pressing question is whether there are substances – and if so, which substances – that are leaking from the crash site right now,” said Peter DeCarlo, professor of environmental health at Johns Hopkins University. “If there are still emissions of chemical waste, it means that the danger to the population exists”.
It was nine o’clock in the evening on February 3 when 50 of the 141 cars of the Norfolk Southern train went off the tracks, starting a fire involving dangerous substances and keeping the firefighters at a distance for days. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) claims that the cause of the derailment is most likely to be attributed to a mechanical problem on the axles of one of the carriages.
The alarm level was raised further two days after the accident, when the authorities signaled the risk of a “big explosion” due to the changed conditions of one of the carriages. The following Monday a “controlled combustion” of vinyl chloride was carried out to avoid an explosion, and since last Wednesday the inhabitants have been able to return to their homes.
Eric Whitining, a resident of the area, said that on some nights the smell in the air is like that of “a swimming pool with too much chlorine,” so strong it makes your eyes burn. Whitining returned home the same day the evacuation order was lifted. He doesn’t have the possibility of moving his family of five elsewhere, so he admits that he has no choice and that he has to limit himself to following the instructions received. “Ours is a small country, we have to trust them, also because what alternatives do we have?” continues Whitining. “We just have to hope they’re not lying to us.”
One of the four lawsuits already filed by some citizens of Ohio and Pennsylvania against Norfolk Southern speaks of over a thousand people directly affected: residents, merchants and anyone who has been exposed to dangerous substances. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday by Ray and Judith Hill, both residents of East Palestine, allege that the derailment was due to negligence by Norfolk Southern. The lawsuit – which has as its objective the payment of economic damages, access to medical checks extended over time, and more – states that the inhabitants exposed to fumes and toxic substances had to bear, in addition to evacuation costs, the effects of “intense emotional distress” and anxiety.
Michael L. Pucci, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, said the company is currently unable to comment on the litigation. Norfolk Southern has set up a ‘family assistance centre’ through which it is reimbursing the expenses of residents who have left their homes. However, Pucci did not want to clarify how many people have been helped, and how long this intervention will continue.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the top chemicals that went missing include: vinyl chloride, phosgene and hydrogen chloride (by-products of vinyl chloride), butyl acrylate, and others. However, neither the EPA nor the NTSB has published a complete list of substances that the train was carrying.
When asked about whether Norfolk Southern would publish the list, Pucci directed the Washington Post to the NTSB, the agency overseeing the derailment investigation. An NTSB spokesman said the list will be included in the agency’s final report on the derailment (usually released months after the event). Rachel Bassler of the EPA explains that the agency has communicated to the public the list of chemicals that “posed the greatest danger to the community”.
Some experts believe that the EPA’s air monitoring should have been done in more accurate ways and tools, and that it’s unclear whether the agency gathered enough information to assure residents that the air had returned to normal. be breathable. “In these situations, the EPA controls with the tools it has at the time, which doesn’t mean that these are always the most effective methods,” adds Professor DeCarlo. “The portable monitors that have been used are certainly easy to use, but they do not offer a degree of sensitivity or chemical specificity that would allow for proper risk assessment.”
Judith Enck, former EPA regional administrator, agreed and called the fact that the EPA did not publish the complete list of chemicals contained inside the train cars “immoral”. She added that the agency should open a website where test results are presented, “in a way that is understandable to the public.” “You should at least be able to know what was inside each car. It is one of those moments in which maximum transparency is a must».
Bassler explained on behalf of the EPA that, before authorizing the return to homes, the agency submitted the data obtained on air quality to the examination of the health authorities. Once the fires were extinguished, inspections showed no worrying levels of contaminants in the air.
About 450 residents requested an air quality check in their homes after Norfolk Southern offered this service in partnership with the EPA. Checks to date have found no vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride in any of the 105 homes examined, Bassler said on Friday evening.
Vinyl chloride is a carcinogen but, according to federal government sources, major harmful effects have been found only after long-term and high-intensity exposures. In an information leaflet distributed to residents, Norfolk Southern states that “the short-term, low-intensity contact caused by the derailment does not pose a long-term health risk to the resident population”. The question remains whether the quantity of pollutants released can lead to harmful effects in the long run.
Nate Velez, a 31-year-old resident who lives and works in the immediate vicinity of the railway, says he has no plans for himself or his family to return. The house still smells strongly of chemicals and his wife, a nurse, “has no intention of taking any chances” with the amount of toxic material that has gone missing. “Chemical waste from fires does not disappear overnight,” added Velez. “I don’t think there’s any way of knowing now what the true long-term impact will be, and it’s simply not a risk worth taking.”
Maura Todd and her family traveled by car from East Palestine to Lexington, Kentucky, on Feb. 5, to stay with relatives while waiting for authorities to deem it safe to allow the residents to return. When the announcement came, however, Todd thought of going on patrol, before deciding whether to return with the rest of the family.
And so, on Sunday – after traveling from Kentucky and spending the night in a hotel in Salem, Ohio – Todd and her husband reached the East Palestine home to make their own assessment, wearing masks. The son and the three dogs remained in Lexington, Todd told the Washington Post: “We have to rely on our senses, since nobody tells us much.”
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(translation by Laura Mangano)
