Images of dead fish floating in murky water and menacing plumes of gray smoke are haunting the nation’s front pages. Interviews with distressed residents are interspersed with exasperated talking heads on our television screens. More than month after the train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, America continues to bear witness to the community’s suffering.
Though any fiery train wreck is hazardous, this one was particularly catastrophic given the chemicals onboard. Chief among them was cancer-causing vinyl chloride gas, which officials intentionally released into the surrounding air to avoid an explosion. Residents were evacuated during this operation, but long-term pollution and exposure concerns remain. The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the railway to test the air for dioxins, which can also cause cancer and linger in the environment long after vinyl chloride and other plastic chemicals are burned.
Soon the camera crews will pack up and public attention will shift to the next big story. But for East Palestine, the story is just beginning, and the following chapters are likely to be grim. We know because the same chemical contaminated — and eventually destroyed — several towns in Louisiana decades ago.
