Health concerns continue more than a week after Ohio train wreck
Following the derailment of about 50 train cars in East Palestine, Ohio, more than a week ago and the subsequent controlled release of vinyl chloride into the air to prevent an explosion, residents as far away as Pittsburgh are wondering about potential health impacts.
Elected officials are on alert, too: Senators from Pennsylvania and Ohio released a joint statement on Wednesday calling for additional testing and for the freight train’s owner, Norfolk Southern Railway, to be held accountable. It was sent to Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan, and followed a letter to Norfolk Southern from Gov. Josh Shapiro the day prior.
“Given the rural nature of this community, many residents rely on private drinking water wells that are not connected to a public water supply system, and therefore may need additional testing from EPA to ensure the safety of their drinking water sources,” the senators wrote in their statement. “We are deeply concerned for the safety of the community in the impacted area.”
Beyond the vinyl chloride, the EPA identified additional chemicals — isobutylene, butyl acrylates, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and ethylhexyl acrylate — present at the scene and provided more information about what is being monitored and tested.
The EPA report outlining the contents of the train cars and status of certain chemicals states that a tank car loaded with ethylhexyl acrylate breached, and that the amount of the chemical still in the car is pending. One tank car of butyl acrylate was lost to spillage and fire. The EPA also identified two empty benzene tank cars, indicating no breach.
It’s a good sign that no benzene was detected in the air, said Eric Beckman, co-director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Benzene is a carcinogen.
The chemicals differ a lot in their volatility, he said, which is a measure of how quickly chemicals evaporate, affecting where they end up.
Mr. Beckman said butyl acrylate has a sharp and irritating chemical smell. If a person is exposed, it might cause red or itchy eyes. Acrylates are raw materials often used to make adhesives.
A tank car containing diethylene glycol was reported as breached and the load lost. Diethylene glycol dissolves easily into water but is not very toxic to humans, said Mr. Beckman. He speculated that this could be the culprit for dead fish found at various streams in East Palestine.
Mr. Beckman has no involvement in the situation and thus his comments are based on his own expertise working with these chemicals.
The added element of fire means that it’s not clear what exactly people were exposed to or in what amounts, which adds difficulty to testing and monitoring efforts.
“This is truly an uncontrolled chemical reaction,” Mr. Beckman said. “The range of things you can create is really vast … there are a lot of unknowns here.”
Air quality is continually being monitored by EPA-led and private sensors for many different chemicals.
Cary Secrest, a retired air inspector with the EPA, said the monitoring regimen — where the monitors were placed and what chemicals they were screening for — appeared appropriate based on the situation.
“It seems like they did gather a lot of data,” he said.
The readings, over the course of days, before and after the controlled burn, did not detect the feared phosgene gas, which can form when vinyl chloride is burned. No other air pollutants were elevated except fine particulates.
Although these chemicals were not detected during air testing, it doesn’t mean people didn’t smell them. Some substances can be detected with a nose at concentrations many times lower than what would be considered harmful.
For example, butyl acrylate has an odor threshold of .035 parts per million. But even the slightest, short-term health impacts aren’t seen until the concentration of the compound reaches 8.3 ppm. Serious health consequences aren’t expected until it reaches 53 ppm over the course of eight hours.
No contaminants appear to have traveled from the derailment site to Allegheny County. Per a Feb. 16 statement from the Allegheny County Health Department, which noted it has been monitoring since Feb. 3, “our monitors and analysts reviewing the county’s air quality data have not seen any air quality changes that can be attributed to the derailment.”