The streams around East Palestine, Ohio, were so polluted by last year’s devastating Norfolk Southern derailment that some workers became ill during cleanup efforts.
Workers who reported headaches and nausea – while shooting compressed air into the creek bed, releasing chemicals from sediment and water – were sent back to their hotels to rest, according to a report on their illnesses obtained by The Associated Press.
The results were not made public last spring, despite concerns among residents about the potential health effects of contact with the numerous chemicals that spilled and burned after the disaster. The workers’ symptoms described in the report are consistent with what Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees who went door-to-door in the city reported shortly after the derailment on February 3, 2023.
Since then, some residents have also reported unexplained skin rashes, asthma and other respiratory problems, as well as serious illnesses, including breast cancer in men.
Researchers are still trying to determine how many of these health problems can be linked to the derailment and what the disaster will do to the long-term health of residents in the area near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Many are wondering if cancer will develop along the road, something that will of course not be clear for several years.
In the meantime, residents have until Aug. 22 to decide whether to accept up to $25,000 as part of a $600 million class-action settlement with the railroad company to compensate them for future health problems. Accepting that money, however, means they give up the right to sue later, when the cost of health insurance and the specific treatments needed become clearer.
Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Heather Garcia said none of the workers who became ill during the cleanup “reported any persistent or long-term symptoms.”
“The health and safety of our employees, contractors and community has been our top priority throughout the reconstruction phase in Eastern Palestine,” Garcia said.
Cleanup work on the creek continued, but nearly three weeks later another worker fell ill. This time, work was halted entirely. Although there have been other cleanup projects since then, the use of high-pressure air knives has been discontinued.
George Thompson, an independent toxicologist who has followed the aftermath of the Ohio spill, said the cleanup efforts overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency should have known that their work would release chemicals from the sediment into the air and water. In fact, CTEH monitored this throughout the project. And since one of the main rivers, Sulphur Run, flows directly through the city and in culverts under homes and offices, Thompson said those chemicals could have seeped into the buildings.
“You’re just spreading the chemicals around so they’re exposed,” Thompson said. “And I just think it was an uninformed decision to use air knives in the first place.”
Local resident Jami Wallace said she lost her voice for two weeks after getting too close to one of the air knife machines set up near her driveway. She said when the machine was turned on, she felt like she was hit by an invisible wall that emitted a sweet chemical smell, similar to when the train derailed.
The CTEH report was submitted to the Unified Command, the disaster response group that includes Norfolk Southern, federal, state and local officials. Despite widespread public interest, it was never made public. Paul Nony, chief toxicologist at CTEH, confirmed that the report was forwarded to the command center and officials there were informed of the illnesses.
When CDC employees became ill – also with headaches and nausea – it made national headlines.
Misti Allison, a resident of East Palestine, said not enough is being done to monitor the long-term health impacts on the population and this report reinforces her health concerns. She said this report should never have been kept from the public.
“This is absolutely outrageous and this kind of thing should not be happening. I think that information like this – just like when the CDC people came into the area and got sick – should be disclosed and not downplayed,” Allison said. “Especially when it comes to human health, nothing should be swept under the rug.”
The derailment of the East Palestine train on the night of February 3, 2023 was by far the worst rail accident since a train carrying crude oil leveled the small Canadian town of Lac Megantic in 2013, killing 47 people. It sparked a nationwide debate about rail safety and calls for reform – but proposals for new industry rules have stalled in Congress.
38 wagons derailed, including 11 containing dangerous substances such as butyl acrylate and vinyl chloride. A fire burned for days after the accident. Fearing that the five vinyl chloride wagons might explode, officials unnecessarily blew them open and deliberately burned the toxic plastic component.
That created a huge cloud of thick, black smoke over the area. The NTSB found that decision-makers that day never received the crucial opinion from the chemical manufacturer – that the cars were unlikely to explode.
The major railroads responded by pledging to add hundreds more detectors to tracks across the country to detect mechanical problems. They also revamped how they respond to alerts, even reviewing the way they monitor rising temperatures caused by overheated wheel bearings before alerts were issued.
The conclusion of the NTSB investigation into the accident this summer raised new hopes that Congress might pass a railroad safety bill, but aside from a House hearing on the issue last month, little has happened.
CTEH said its environmental testing around the creeks confirmed elevated levels of several chemicals in the air and sediment. Still, the group was unable to find any of the two chemicals of most concern: vinyl chloride or butyl acrylate. Sediment testing at nine locations along the creeks where cleanup crews reported strong odors showed 37 different chemical compounds, mostly hydrocarbons or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
For this reason, according to CTEH, it is clear that some of the pollutants in the streams came from industrial plants that were operating in the area years before the derailment in 2023. However, these compounds could also have been created by the combustion of chemicals after the train crash.
Nony, CTEH’s chief toxicologist, explained that his company’s primary responsibility during the air knife operation was to monitor air quality.
The EPA has said it does not believe people are being exposed to toxic chemicals on an ongoing basis because air and water tests since the evacuation order was lifted have not found any concerning levels of those chemicals.
In follow-up investigations this year, the agency did indeed find small amounts of vinyl chloride and other chemicals at the crash site. However, because the amounts were small and the contaminated soil was removed, the agency said they did not pose a threat to human health.
The entire clean-up operation in Eastern Palestine is expected to be completed later this year.
