Do not ignore effects of toxic train spill in Ohio

The soup of toxic chemicals spilled by the Norfolk train accident in Ohio must not be ignored or minimized. Of course, the residents in the area were immediately evacuated. Later they were told it was safe to return to their homes. Then a bit later, they were told not to drink any water from their spigots.

What kind of life would this mean for these residents? When would the water be safe to drink? The truth is no one has answers to these questions.

Terms like permissible exposure levels, or PEL, and shortterm exposure limits, or SEL, are tossed out by officials as if they know exactly what’s going on with these chemicals as they permeate the ground where there are human residents. In contrast, once in the ground, there’s no way to easily remove them to assure the residents that their water supply will be safe.

I’ve looked up all of the “safety” for this chemical soup made up of vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol monobutylether, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, and the numbers reveal toxicity levels ranging from 3,000 ppm down to 5 ppm (part per million). In contrast, these numbers are asserted to be somewhat reassuring; how many really know what they mean? Three thousand ppm and 5 ppm translate to 0.3 percent and 0.0005 percent, respectively. Yes, these look like small numbers, but this is misleading because these are averages and don’t tell what the toxic levels in humans are.

I will not continue with this exposition after showing this statement from the CDC: “Exposure to vinyl chloride over many years can affect the liver, nervous system and skin. Long-term exposure can cause a rare form of liver cancer.” Once these chemicals are spilled, they seep into the earth, and there’s no telling where they will migrate once below the surface.

There are similar warnings for the other chemicals involved in the spill. The bottom line about human toxicity comes down to what I call the “GESS” factors: 1) the genetic make of any exposed individual, 2) what is their exposure level, 3) how the selective uptake varies from one individual to another, and finally, 4) how sensitive are different individuals.

These factors will vary from one person to another, so some may escape totally unscathed while others may develop lifethreatening diseases. I am unaware of how densely populated the spill area is. Still, it seems the safest short-term solution is to declare the area off-limits for humans — at least for the nearterm future, pending additional studies.

The erroneous response, as summarized above, was compounded by the railroad then setting fire to the spilled contents creating a wider area of environmental damage. This reminded me of the geniuses who once decided to dry an athletic field by dousing it with gasoline and lighting it, not realizing that burning gasoline produces even more water.

In this Ohio case, the combustion is unlikely to be complete, as evidenced by the thick black smoke, which also contains uncombusted vinyl chloride dispersing it over an even wider area.

Getty Images Smoke rises from a derailed cargo train in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 4