On February 3rd in East Palestine, Ohio, a train carrying toxic chemicals was derailed, causing the chemicals to spill out, leading to environmental harm. The train ran off the track, and this caused a huge fire to start. The people in charge of the train decided to continue burning the chemicals on the train, rather than letting an explosion happen. Although this may have seemed like a good idea at the time, the truth is that if the substance isn’t burned all the way through, it can release dioxins, which are hard to naturally degrade.
The train was carrying a gas called vinyl chloride. Vinyl chloride is used in making plastic products, but when inhaled, it can cause headaches, dizziness, and tiredness. It also causes a rare form of liver cancer when one is exposed for a long time. Because there were so many chemicals on the train, there was so much released that could have reached people. Thankfully, people living around the crash were evacuated from their towns to safety, but because this gas is colorless, there’s really no way for people to figure out if they’ve been exposed unless they get one of the symptoms. Even though people have been trying to clear the chemicals out of the area, experts still say to keep wiping down surfaces because the chemicals are still going to be there, even after the cleaning.
Chemical spills threaten public health and can stay even after the immediate disaster has been dealt with. Chemical plumes can seep into the soil, rivers, and drinking water sources. The long-term effects are important to not ignore. Poisons would be able to be in groundwater and vaporize through the cracks in the ground and get into people's houses, even after they have wiped everything down. The plants that are grown on these soils may cause mutations and cancer in the people who consume these foods. Furthermore, toxic chemicals still have the ability to react with other compounds and continue to develop into other substances even after being burned.
This spill’s harm to the natural environment is clearer than the effects of the spill on humans. The spill went into the rivers and killed fish, which will likely affect the other wildlife that uses the rivers as resources for food and shelter.
Additionally, this accident hasn’t gained much media attention, which is strange because of how harmful it is to people living in the area where the river water is now contaminated. Once this chemical spill came to the attention of health officials, they claimed it to be “irresponsible and unscientific.” This news was concealed for many days after the crisis happened, and Americans have expressed anger and frustration in response to the delay of the news coverage. They fear that the government will keep concealing information and are skeptical about who to trust.
Although the chemical spill will have lasting effects on the public for a very long time, everyone can only hope that the future will get better.