To hear President Joe Biden tell it, a trip to the East Palestine hamlet hasn’t been on his mind since the devastating train accident earlier this month.
On February 3, 2019, a tragic train accident occurred in a tiny town in Ohio due to an overheated wheel bearing in one car. Residents within a mile of the wrecked train were evacuated, and a controlled burn of the vinyl chloride it was hauling was initiated.
In eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, residents saw massive black plumes of smoke billowing from five train wagons. The smoke was later determined to be vinyl chloride, a human carcinogen used in the production of PVC.
To reporters’ inquiries about whether or not President Joe Biden will be traveling to East Palestine, he said, “no,” before defending government policy.
Likely, criticism of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s response to the accident played a role in Biden’s decision to skip town.
Recently, former President Donald Trump visited the area and made social media brags about the massive crowds who showed up to see him.
Researchers from Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon found abnormally high concentrations of nine of the approximately 50 chemicals the EPA reported were on board the derailed train in East Palestine on Friday. The investigation found higher-than-average concentrations of acrolein, which has a foul stench and is “extremely harmful” to inhale.
It was found that there were excessive amounts of benzene, naphthalene, and vinyl chloride. In light of the results, it is reasonable to worry about health effects “if these levels persist.”
There has been “no discovery of toxins in raw water from the five wells that feed into East Palestine’s municipal water system,” as stated by the EPA and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R). In an interview, Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, said that there had been no “concerning readings” of hazardous chemicals in public water supplies or private wells.