OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
3:40 PM – Monday, January 29, 2024
A research report publicized this month assumes that the possibility of derailments involving toxic chemicals on freight trains puts over three million Americans at risk.
The study, released this month, indicates that over three million Americans could be at risk of derailments involving the toxic chemicals, almost a year after a freight train carrying the same hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.
According to a report by Toxic-Free Future, an environmental health advocacy group, American railroads are currently transporting up to 36 million pounds of vinyl chloride over a distance of 2,000 miles.
Three facilities in Illinois, New Jersey, and Ontario are the main destinations for the rail traffic, however, the route to the New Jersey facility starts in Texas, endangering a large area of the Eastern United States.
This region of the nation encompasses both population centers like Austin and Houston in Texas, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as other locations in hundreds of smaller towns and cities like East Palestine. An estimated 670,000 children live along this route.
The previous East Palestine disaster resulted in a plume of toxic fumes into the atmosphere following a controlled burn by local authorities, however, no one was killed or injured. Locals are now worried about potential long-term health consequences from substance exposure.
Mike Schade, the director of Mind the Store, a program of Toxic-Free Future that encourages merchants to stop selling hazardous chemicals, commented on the topic.
“The people of East Palestine were forced to learn the hard way that tank cars of vinyl chloride rumbling through your town can mean disaster for your health and your community,” said Schade. “It is outrageous that the amount of vinyl chloride involved in that tragedy reflects only a small percentage of the millions of pounds that is transported at any given moment.”
Vinyl chloride safety risks are in the process of being examined by the Environmental Protection Agency.
This is a multiyear process that could result in a formal determination that vinyl chloride poses an “unreasonable” risk to human and environmental health.
AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan made a statement regarding the situation.
“We need to make sure that the railroads are bringing a safety culture back to their operations and ensuring that the members I represent, the workers, are given every tool they need to operate the trains safely,” Regan said.
Researchers hope that their findings will persuade major distributors and vinyl suppliers to alter their business practices in case another tragedy occurs.
“We owe it to communities like East Palestine and Paulsboro to learn from the mistakes of the past so that no other community has to go through what they’ve gone through,” Regan added.
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