In the weeks since the derailment of the Norfolk Southern train disaster on February 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, experts have sounded the alarm about the possibility that dioxins – a family of extremely toxic compounds – were released into the environment when the authorities intentionally burned chemicals onboard to prevent a potentially massive explosion.
In response to public pressure and concern, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will require Norfolk Southern to sample for this class of pollutants.
“This action builds on EPA’s bipartisan efforts along with local, state, and federal partners to earn the trust of this community and ensure all residents have the assurance they need to feel at home again,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. .
Many celebrated the announcement as a step in the right direction.
“This is why we organize,” River Valley Organizing, an Ohio community nonprofit, wrote on Twitter. “Coming together and demanding action is the only way we’re going to make change and get what our communities need.”
But others have serious concerns about allowing Norfolk Southern, the company responsible for the environmental disaster, to lead the search for dioxin — especially after Ohio officials relied on a railroad contractor. defective water sampling for the first time to declare the village’s municipal water safe to drink, as HuffPost first reported.
Sri Vedachalam, a water policy expert whose work includes public trust and communication, told HuffPost that he could see the reason for Norfolk Southern’s participation in the dioxin test because the company knows the chemicals and materials involved in the accident, “the optician believes. sufficient process to hand over hazardous chemicals test is bad.
“The man who guards the chicken coop!” said.
Ross Grooters, a longtime locomotive engineer and chairman of the Railroad Workers United, wrote on Twitter that the dioxin testing “must be independent of Norfolk Southern.”
“We cannot rely on the railroad on this matter, especially after concerns about poor water quality testing,” Grooters wrote.
“Optics that trust the process enough to submit to testing for dangerous chemicals.”
– Sri Vedachalam, water policy expert
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) and the Ohio EPA have face scrutiny through Norfolk Southern’s involvement in testing the water in East Palestine – and state officials have given it contradictory statements about what data they had when they declared the water safe to drink on February 15.
The Norfolk Southern train was about 2 miles past East Palestine, a town of about 5,000 on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, when 38 cars derailed and caught fire. Of the 50 train cars that derailed or were damaged by the fire, 20 contained hazardous materials. Of particular concern are hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride, an organic chemical commonly used in the production of plastics.
Vinyl chloride has its own linked to some types of cancer. But what happened when the vinyl chloride was burned, because three days after the train accident, that made the residents very scared.
While the so-called “controlled release” prevented the explosion, it released a black cloud of phosgene, hydrogen chloride and other gases into the air. Phosgene was used as a chemical weapon during World War I, and exposure to it can cause vomiting, eye irritation and difficulty breathing.
Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press
Then there’s the threat of dioxin, which is known to form when chlorine chemicals like vinyl chloride burn. Dioxin exposure is linked many serious and potentially fatal health problems, including cancer, developmental and reproductive problems, immune system damage and hormone disruption. These chemicals are “persistent organic pollutants,” meaning they take a long time to break down in the environment, and can accumulate in the food chain.
“There is no question that dioxins are formed in vinyl chloride fires,” Stephen Lester, director of science at the Virginia Center for Health, Environment and Justice, said. write in an opinion piece in The Guardian on Friday. He said the decision to burn vinyl chloride should immediately lead to widespread dioxin testing.
EPA officials initially rejected calls to search for this class of toxic chemicals. It will be difficult to link the dioxin detected in the community to the derailment, Debra Shore, EPA Region 5 administrator, said at a news conference.
“We don’t have baseline information for dioxin,” Shore said. “They are everywhere in the environment. They can be caused by wildfires, by backyard grills, by a host of other normal activities in human life. Without that information, it would be difficult to attribute any level to the derailment.
Matt Freed/Associated Press
Experts criticized the EPA’s explanation for the challenge of linking dioxin contamination to the derailment. Among other things, they pointed out that the most toxic dioxin – Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin, or TCDD – is protected under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
“Regardless of the source, derailment or not derailed, #East Palestine Citizens should be aware of any dioxins in their drinking water,” Nicole Karn, a chemist and associate professor at Ohio State University, wrote in a post to Twitter.
Karn told HuffPost that trace amounts of dioxin can be produced during the combustion of chemicals on trains.
“To form dioxin you need a carbon source and a chloride source – both of which are in vinyl chloride,” he said via email. “I also have to assume that ‘polyvinyl’ is listed on the cargo and it also burns. I imagine this is polyvinyl chloride (although I can’t be sure from just the cargo list on the train). It must be dioxin as a combustion product of PVC.
South Norfolk’s action by conducting dioxin testing was a “bad decision” in terms of public perception, even though the sampling was scientifically proven, Karn said.
In an announcement on Thursday, the EPA said that if unsafe levels of dioxin are detected in the area, it will notify the public and order Norfolk Southern to clean it up immediately. It also requires the railroad to conduct a background study to determine dioxin levels at the derailment site compared to nearby areas.
It is unclear how often the tests will be conducted.
Image by Michael Swensen/Getty
The EPA defended its decision to let Norfolk Southern lead the testing effort, noting that the order Regan signed last month provides full oversight of the company’s cleanup activities.
“The EPA will review every aspect of the plan to ensure that it is protective. If the company’s plan does not meet the strict requirements of the EPA, the EPA will modify the plan – and those modifications will then be part of the action to ensure that all work is carried out to the highest standards and the most protective,” an EPA spokesperson said in an email. . “If the company fails to complete the actions as ordered by the EPA, the agency will immediately step in, do the necessary work, and then force Norfolk Southern to pay three times the cost.”
Norfolk Southern did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
In mid-February, two weeks after the derailment, Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and JD Vance (R) write told the director of the US EPA and the Ohio EPA to request immediate and long-term dioxin testing in and around the accident site.
“We are concerned that the burning of large volumes of vinyl chloride could lead to the formation of dioxins that could be spread throughout East Palestinian communities and potentially many. [larger] region,” the senators wrote.
In a response letter Thursday, Regan and Ohio EPA Director Anne Vogel detailed the new testing mandate for Norfolk Southern and noted that state and federal agencies have been sampling for so-called “indicator chemicals” that would signal potential dioxin releases from the derailment. .
“To date, EPA monitoring for indicator chemicals suggests a low probability of dioxin release from this incident,” Regan and Vogel wrote.