U.S. Senators from Ohio and Pennsylvania want the National Institutes of Health to probe how chemicals spilled in a Feb. 3 train derailment are affecting health of residents in East Palestine and surrounding communities.
WASHINGTON, D. C. -
The letter said the legislators have heard repeated concerns from residents of East Palestine and its surrounding communities in Ohio and Pennsylvania about the “potential impact of both acute and chronic exposure to the hazardous chemicals released in the train derailment. The Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine spilled toxic chemicals such as vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether. Federal and state officials, fearing the vinyl chloride tanks would explode, set them afire, creating a massive plume of thick black smoke. Other chemicals seeped into local streams, killing fish and traveling down into the Ohio River.