After weeks of questions about contamination associated with a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday ordered rail company Norfolk Southern to test the area for dioxins, a dangerous and persistent class of pollutants created when plastic is burned. The train that crashed there Feb. 3 was carrying chemicals used to make plastics.
Dioxins are produced when burning anything from wood and fossil fuels to municipal waste and cigarettes. Combustion releases chlorine stored in those substances, which reacts with other compounds to form dioxins. The pollutants are of particular concern when plastic is burned because chlorine is a key element of plastics, including PVC and vinyl chloride.Dioxins are linked to cancer, reproductive and developmental problems and immune system damage.
Those cleanup efforts have included removal of more than 2 million gallons of contaminated water and 1,390 tons of contaminated soil, according to Norfolk Southern. Railroad officials could not be immediately reached for comment on EPA’s testing order.In the weeks since the derailment and chemical release, EPA has played down the risks of dioxin pollution. An EPA spokesperson told The Washington Post as recently as Feb. 19 that any dioxins produced “would have been dispersed in the atmosphere.
Residents have voiced fears that East Palestine will join those places as a toxic town. One woman said EPA’s order to test for dioxin offers an opportunity to ease those concerns — but added that she is doubtful the findings will be encouraging.
Why don't they have surveillance of the waste water to test for dioxin ingestion yet for East Palestine attack?
Isn’t that EPA ‘s job? We doubling down in that reliable old saw, “industry self-policing?”
Is this like asking the tobacco companies to research the effects of cigarettes? Lol
Why doesn't the EPA do it?
Republicans have been defunding and defanging the EPA for ages. Hopefully, the slightly increased funding for 2023 will help restore its biliary to protect Americans.
Another Biden disaster.
You don’t say
Why is EPA not doing the tests?
AIDS. 9-11 toxicity. Long Covid. East Palestine.
28 days later.
Really funny our local news in Indiana keep talking about toxic waste being moved here from Palestine wtf? I thought everything was fine?
unreal!
“Dioxins are found throughout the world in the environment...a large part of current exposures to dioxins in the United States is due to releases that occurred decades ago. Even if all human-generated dioxins were eliminated, low levels of naturally produced dioxin would remain.”
We're asking the corporation responsible for the poisoning to test their own disaster site? I'm sure we can trust their results.
Biden’s fault but he doesn’t care.
I’m glad is covering this. Yes, it’s late. Sure, it’s forced by pressure from alternative media. …but they’re covering it. These are our new roles in the 2020s. Alternative, ground-swell media holds establishment media accountable. I accept this relationship.
But repubs like to defund the EPA.
It is about time that the water near the train derailment site was tested. And not like it was done before right after the derailment before contaminants had time to seep into the groundwater. Enough of politicians drinking glasses of water too.
It is a lot late, live stock has been dying or sick from day one. It has been close to 30 days.
We are how many days into this and NOW they want to test? 🤔
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