Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has said that cleanup is moving quickly after a train carrying toxic materials derailed in Ohio 11 days ago as residents and observers questioned the health impacts of pollution that spilled into the Ohio River.
The Norfolk Southern Railroad-operated train had derailed on February 3, causing a fire that sent clouds of smoke over a town of East Palestine and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate. After the railroad crews have drained and burned off the toxic chemical from five tanker cars, Mike DeWine on February 8 said that residents could return to their homes.
While DeWine said that the pollution didn’t pose a severe threat to five million people who rely on the river for drinking water, he and many Ohio health and environmental officials cautioned at an afternoon press conference that residents using private wells near the derailment should only use bottled water.
Reporters have pressed DeWine and other officials about some residents’ complaints of headaches and concern the government and the railroad weren’t telling them the entire truth about the pollution and potential harm.
Train was also carrying vinyl chloride
One of the chemicals on a train was vinyl chloride, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency says is highly flammable and carcinogenic, especially through inhalation. When burned, it decomposes into other toxic compound including hydrogen chloride.
Director of Ohio Department of Health, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said that the compounds spilled cause headaches, nose and eye irritation even at levels considered safe, but the “measured facts” show air sampling not reporting any dangers.
The plume of pollution in Ohio River was moving at one mile per hour toward the Mississippi River, nearing Huntington, West Virginia, on Tuesday afternoon, said Tiffany Kavalec, chief of the surface water division of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
