Ohio train derailment: Officials say no hazardous material spilled
Norfolk Southern and Clark County officials say 28 of the southbound train’s 212 cars, including four empty tankers, derailed at about 4:45 p.m. Saturday in Springfield Township. (Credit: WKEF)
The Environmental Protection Agency said it will review risks posed by a handful of chemicals, including vinyl chloride, which is used to make a variety of plastic products, including pipes, wire and packaging materials. The chemical is found in polyvinyl chloride plastic, better known as PVC.
The EPA said it will study vinyl chloride to determine whether it poses an “unreasonable risk to human health or the environment,″ a process that would take at least three years.
“Under the Biden-Harris administration, EPA has made significant progress … to strengthen our nation’s chemical safety laws after years of mismanagement and delay. Today marks an important step forward,” said Michal Freedhoff, assistant EPA administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention.
Environmental and public health activists welcomed the announcement, calling the review long overdue.
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Jess Conard, an East Palestine resident who now works as a regional director for Beyond Plastics, said EPA was making the right decision.
“If you live along the rail line, you are at risk for the same fate (as East Palestine) with every passing train that is transporting toxic chemicals,” she said. Conard faulted what she called “an insatiable demand” by Americans for plastic products that has “driven the need for increased transport of these hazardous substances, placing communities like mine at risk every single day.″
Inhalation of vinyl chloride has been linked to liver cancer and other health problems, according to the National Cancer Institute, and its use has long been banned in cosmetics, hair spray and other personal products. PVC plastic is not a known or suspected carcinogen, the agency said.
Vinyl chloride is “safely and responsibly manufactured in the United States,” Ned Monroe, president and CEO of the Vinyl Institute, said in a statement this summer. Beyond Plastics and other groups have “chosen to use the tragic events of East Palestine to advance deceptive and disproven claims about our industry that only serve to mislead the public,″ Monroe said.
Debate over vinyl chloride has simmered for years but gained a new urgency after the Feb. 3 derailment of a 50-car Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine. Three days later, emergency crews released toxic vinyl chloride from five tank cars and burned it to keep them from exploding.
The Feb. 6 burn sparked worries that it could have formed dioxins, a known carcinogen created from burning chlorinated carbon materials.
