Residents living near the positioning of the East Palestine train derailment are blasting the Biden Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for his or her response to the crisis.
Local and federal officials have insisted tests show the air and water supply is secure to breathe and drink following the Feb. 3 incident — where authorities burned tons of hazardous chemicals to forestall an explosion — but many residents are reporting negative effects to their health and remain skeptical.
“The sentiment from the residents appears to be they’re super annoyed at how the federal government, how the Biden administration specifically is handling the situation,” said video journalist Nick Sortor.
The essential chemical burned was vinyl chloride, an ingredient used to supply plastics and PVC, which has been shown to cause cancer at high levels of exposure.
“The EPA specifically won’t consult with any of the residents. You’ve people who are right up there [next to the crash site]. I spoke with a small business owner — their business was right in front of where the explosion was. They’ll’t get anything out of the EPA,” he added to Tucker Carlson.
Concerns are growing amongst residents that the town their town of about 5,000 might be abandoned by the federal government, Sortor said.
Environmentalist and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich called for motion, writing: “The Biden Administration must get more involved on this train derailment now. We’re counting on you to interrupt the chain of administration after administration to show a blind eye,” she wrote on Twitter.
Biden has yet to deal with the derailment, but after being called out on each side of the aisle for his inaction, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg Tweeted: “I proceed to be concerned in regards to the impacts of the Feb 3 train derailment … and the results on families.”
The EPA said it has screened 459 homes and 21 drinking water wells and that it was monitoring air quality 24 hours a day. Norfolk Southern has also been providing the town with bottled water.
Evacuation orders were lifted Feb. 8 and residents returned home but since that point people have reported feeling a burning sensation of their eyes, animals falling sick and a powerful chemical odor looming over the town.
Nathan Izotic said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” it smells of burning plastic at he and wife Kelly’s home, about two miles from where the incident took place.
“As soon as we got [to] the Ohio line, we immediately smelled the chemicals yet again. And since then, I now have the chemical burns and response rash on my face, and my throat is getting irritated again and I’m feeling very uneasy. Very uneasy,” he said.
Glenn Fulton, who grew up in East Palestine and now works about three and a half miles away in Unity Township, says he has began to notice he feels different when stepping outside.
“I can start feeling something in my throat and I even have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and just health issues on the whole. I’m diabetic, I’ve got a pacemaker and I live in Columbiana, but I’m from East Palestine. I can notice a significant, major difference in my respiration after I get down here,” Fulton told WKBN.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine looked as if it would sympathize with residents’ concerns over possible health issues and hesitancy to return to normalcy.
“If I lived in the neighborhood I’d be indignant too,” DeWine said during a news conference Tuesday, in keeping with the Ohio Capital Journal.
“Norfolk Southern is answerable for this problem,” DeWine said. “We fully expect them to live as much as what the CEO committed to me, and that’s that they’ll pay for it.”
“In the event that they don’t,” he added “we’ve got an Attorney General.”
DeWine added on Wednesday the Ohio EPA said there was “no detection of contaminants in East Palestine’s municipal water system,” and it was secure to drink.
The Norfolk Southern train had about 20 cars carrying hazardous materials, in keeping with the National Transportation Safety Board. Half of those cars derailed, including five that contained vinyl chloride, a carcinogen that becomes a deadly gas at room temperature.
Additional chemicals being transported on the train were released into the air, soil and water supply after the fiery crash, including ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene.
The chemicals pose various health risks including types of cancer — but normally provided that an individual were exposed to a really concentrated level or on a protracted term basis.
