A year later, officials tell the people of East Palestine everything’s okay. Is it?
This article features Government Accountability Project whistleblower client, Scott Smith, and was originally published here.
On Jan. 2, Jessica Conard rushed out the door to pick up her four-year-old son’s inhaler. Following the Norfolk Southern train derailment and open chemical burn, he developed chronic asthma, which unfolds in sudden coughing spells that get more intense as the day goes by.
“This is why I keep pushing for this 1881A,” she texted me, referring to part of the Social Security Act that would provide free health care for those affected, but only after a federal emergency declaration, which the Biden administration has not issued. “We need to know our acute and long-term illnesses will not bankrupt us.”
As the first anniversary of the Feb. 3 derailment and the controlled burn three days later arrive, the rising cost of healthcare for affected residents is just one of the unmet needs in East Palestine and the surrounding communities.
The costs the communities pay
Residents were hopeful when President Biden appointed FEMA disaster recovery coordinator, Jim McPherson, to address the residents’ unmet needs. But McPherson has ignored messages from residents and refused to hold an open forum.
This is just one more slap in the face for a community that’s been engaged in a year-long fight for greater transparency and aid from government officials and agencies.
The derailment and open burn show what often happens to the local victims of an environmental disaster. The poisoned are forced to rely on their polluter for financial assistance and independent testing. Officials tell those who report nosebleeds, vision impairments, migraines, rashes, chemical bronchitis and other debilitating ailments, “There are no unmet needs.”
The average annual income in East Palestine is $44,500, and many residents can’t work or were fired because of their health issues. The costs to treat their conditions are financial impossibilities. That’s why so many residents, and others, advocate that residents get access to free healthcare.
The government that should be helping them doesn’t and proves almost impossible to contact. They have no one to turn to. Residents endure constant gaslighting, and its effects are just as traumatizing, if not more so, than the derailment itself.
Unmet need one: healthcare
Let’s start with unmet need number one: healthcare. The evidence is mostly anecdotal but compelling.
I traveled to East Palestine for a town hall meeting last February. Days later, I had crippling vertigo and blurred vision. In March, 15 CDC workers came to the area and seven reported sore throats, headaches, coughing and nausea.
Dr. Rick Tsai, dubbed “The Creek Ranger” for his work documenting the creek contamination, fell ill after a trip into the creeks in mid-March. “All my joints, elbows, and wrists, hurt so bad. I had a horrible headache. It felt like there was a burn stripe from my nasal cavity down into my chest.” His other issues included severe acid reflux and gastrointestinal issues.
The chief sustainability officer of Eco Integrated Technologies and independent testing expert, Scott Smith, has traveled to the area 26 times to do soil, creek water and furnace filter testing. He had to have his nose cauterized after severe nosebleeds.
Laurie Harmon was diagnosed with chemical bronchitis as well as contact dermatitis due to chemical exposure, manifested in painful blisters that came and went for months. Her soil test revealed concerning levels of formaldehyde, a chemical for which the EPA refuses to test, even though it is a potential byproduct of the open chemical burn. Harmon’s fiance, Jake Cozza, tested positive for vinyl chloride.
Conard’s 9-year-old son developed eye lesions after the open burn. “He had an eye infection for two weeks and had these sores on the outside of his eye. I was terrified he would go blind,” she says.
Christina Siceloff also tested positive for vinyl chloride and struggles with headaches. Her 4-year-old son, Eddie, experienced intense vomiting which heightened during contaminated soil excavation and remediation.
Despite the reported health issues, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who took six months to sign the emergency declaration, visited East Palestine in November and said that “most people feel they are doing well.” He also admitted, “but the concern is what happens in the long run.”
Unmet need two: Air testing
Unmet need number two: consistent indoor air testing. On Feb. 6, a plume filled with dozens of chemicals like phosgene and vinyl chloride blackened the skies, dispersing soot laced with cancer-causing dioxins.
Two days later, residents were told it was safe to return home. Numerous residents reported chemical odors during EPA informational sessions.
When Jami Wallace returned to her home with her niece, Jenna, to retrieve some items, she was hit by the smell of chemicals. “When we pulled in that driveway it gets 10 times worse and I look over and I see chemicals freely flowing down the creeks. We started literally gagging,” said Wallace.
“We’re both fair complexion so the hives [show] just all over us. I grabbed the prescriptions, grabbed clothes out of the dryer. I was like, there’s no way in hell this is safe.”
In late February, the Texas A&M Superfund Research Center released information from their independent study. It revealed levels in the air of acrolein and eight other toxins that were above the acceptable EPA limit. Acrolein can cause dizziness, nausea, headaches and lung irritation.
Independent testing of Hilary Flint’s home revealed concerning levels of ethylhexyl acrylate, which can cause lethargy, headaches, convulsions and gastrointestinal upset. The EPA refused to test. Independent testing of Candice DeSanzo’s furnace filter revealed significantly elevated levels of dioxins.
Yet, the EPA released preliminary findings in March that assured the community that they were not seeing dioxins above the acceptable limit. These kinds of discrepancies only created more distrust in the community and forced residents to seek private testing.
The locally-led group, Unity Council, has demanded that the EPA conduct indoor air testing before residents return home. The EPA denied their requests. Conard was denied reimbursement for an air purifier by the Norfolk Southern assistance center.
Zsuzsa Gyenes evacuated after the derailment because her son started vomiting intensely to the point he couldn’t breathe. Later, she begged the EPA to do indoor air testing while they were at her home, due to the persistent chemical smell. They refused. The only indoor remediation offered was the home cleaning program which was essentially wiping down the walls.
Residents like her, who don’t trust that their homes are safe, fear what will happen to them when Norfolk Southern’s relocation assistance program ends, which is set to happen in February.
Imagine living there
Imagine being a resident of East Palestine and all you want is your medical costs covered and consistent indoor air testing — but instead, your town gets a new fire truck, a public park, a few festivals, a Norfolk Southern training center and railroad decals for the high school football helmets.
If you aren’t content with moving home, Norfolk Southern will pay to relocate you. All you have to do is waive all rights to sue.
Meanwhile, Biden keeps promising to visit, the FEMA coordinator appears and prioritizes meeting with the agencies and officials, like Gov. DeWine and Mayor Trent Conway, who have been telling you “there are no unmet needs,” and you are so sick and tired of being sick and tired that you start to believe them.
What happened, and continues happening, in East Palestine could happen anywhere. In Rockcastle County, Kentucky, residents who were evacuated on Thanksgiving Day due to the derailment of two CSX cars carrying molten sulfur, know this all too well.