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‘Basically Nuked a Town’: EPA Identifies Three More Dangerous Chemicals on Train That Derailed in Ohio

‘Basically Nuked a Town’: EPA Identifies Three More Dangerous Chemicals on Train That Derailed in Ohio

The chemicals are ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, and isobutylene. The agency already identified vinyl chloride.

The EPA identified three more dangerous chemicals on the train that derailed in East Palestine, OH.

The chemicals are ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, and isobutylene.

The agency already identified vinyl chloride.

Almost 50 cars on the freight train derailed near the Pennsylvania line on February 3:

“The post-derailment fire spanned about the length of the derailed train cars,” Michael Graham, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Saturday evening. “The fire has since reduced in intensity, but remains active and the two main tracks are still blocked.”

Norfolk Southern said 20 of the more than 100 cars were classified as carrying hazardous materials — defined as cargo that could pose any kind of danger “including flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks.” Graham said 14 cars carrying vinyl chloride were involved in the derailment “and have been exposed to fire,” and at least one “is intermittently releasing the contents of the car through a pressure release device as designed.”

The residents evacuated but could return after the authorities burned the vinyl chloride in a controlled burn. Authorities tried to convince people the air was safe.

However, residents remained weary because they never released a full list of the chemicals on the train. They demanded more transparency.

“The biggest question remaining is what, if anything, is still being released from the site, first and foremost,” Johns Hopkins University environmental health professor Peter DeCarlo told The Washington Post. “If there are still residual chemical emissions, then that still presents a danger for people in the area.”

WELP.

I wonder what they’re going to say about the new chemicals.

Hazardous material expert Sil Caggiano told WXBN, “We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open.”

Caggiano also provided details about the chemicals:

Caggiano says ethylhexyl acrylate is especially worrisome. He says it’s a carcinogen and contact with it can cause burning and irritation in the skin and eyes. Breathing it in can irritate the nose and throat and cause coughing and shortness of breath.

Isobutylene is also known to cause dizziness and drowsiness when inhaled.

“I was surprised when they quickly told the people they can go back home, but then said if they feel like they want their homes tested they can have them tested. I would’ve far rather they did all the testing,” Caggiano said.

Caggiano says it’s possible some of these chemicals could still be present in homes and on objects until you clean them thoroughly.

“There’s a lot of what ifs, and we’re going to be looking at this thing 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the line and wondering, ‘Gee, cancer clusters could pop up, you know, well water could go bad,” Caggiano said.

West Virginia American Water started “enhancing its water treatment process” due to the explosion.

But where is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg? Making jokes about too many white people in construction.

Here is an excellent thread with information about the crash and the chemicals that we know of so far that were on the train.

I wonder if the residents will get all the answers.

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Comments

“White Noise.”

Were those railway cars owned by Warren Buffett’s company… the company that replaces the XL pipeline and has had major derailments in the past?

residents remained weary
Though I’m sure they’re tired of dealing with this, I’m betting that should be “wary”.

This is what happens when you overload the rail system with the transportation of oil. Close the pipelines and oil had to be moved by rail, normal goods that go by rail got pushed to trucks, good that were on trucks had to find other methods of transportation and if they couldn’t find other ways they didn’t get moved. Cascading effect from FJB closing pipelines.

so we could get a railroad open
And that sounds like a statement that needs some explanation. He’s making an accusation here.

there are too many white people who work construction
I was reliably informed by the race-mongers that construction jobs had too many blacks and other minorities in them because they were forced into those sorts of jobs due to racism.

Three new dangerous chemicals were found
Ummm, you should have known within minutes by looking at the train manifest, right? They’re required to put these things on the list of “What This Choo-Choo is Carrying Today” right?

Someone several ones should be going to jail over this, or at least losing their jobs. [Tinfoil hat: is this maybe because of the union spat?]

    CommoChief in reply to GWB. | February 13, 2023 at 5:52 pm

    The delay on releasing the manifest of chemicals is a problem. Smells like old fashioned corruption.

    lady_knight in reply to GWB. | February 14, 2023 at 8:23 am

    Recently, changes were supposed to be made to at the fed level on revamping train standards that are still the same as the 1800’s but at the last moment the people who set the rules in the Federal Admin not only did not implememnt all the safety changes, they made it worse including not having to list all chemicals on the trains. They bowed to the pressure of big money.

      HUH?! They don’t have to list everything on the train? I wouldn’t even think that was a new rule, but something that came about in, oh, the 70s, maybe.
      Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat.

Oh, and “nuked a town”…
NO, they did not.
Slimed it with multiple simultaneous chemical attacks? Maybe (though still hyperbole). But, trust me, this was NOT “nuking a town.”

It’s a fairly standard freight accident except for catching fire, and unluckily in a town. Trackside detectors warn by radio of hot axles, high impact wheel, wide load (i.e. load dragging or shifted). The crew may or may not hear the warning, but the dispatcher will and will relay it to them in any case. Then they stop the train and walk back to see what’s up. If it’s driveable, they’ll slow-roll the train to the nearest siding where they can set out and abandon the out-of-order car.

Here it derailed before they got the train stopped. There’s lots of momentum if not speed with that weight and it’s easily capable of jackknifing 50 cars op top of each other before the rest of the train behind it stops. They “slow roll” so it won’t do that if a car derails, to set a car out.

It would be interesting to hear where the previous detector was before the one that warned them, and what it said. A burning axle is pretty far advanced as a problem.

Typically the mess is cleaned up and new tracks laid in two or three days. They work incredibly fast at that. Here it was delayed by putting the fire out.

    SeiteiSouther in reply to rhhardin. | February 14, 2023 at 11:33 am

    Actually, they decided to do a controlled release and burn of the vinyl chloride, which sounds like something someone would do in the stupid ages (19th, early 20th century). What kills me is that they decided not to do a full inventory to determine if there were any other chemicals that might be a problem.

    Government at its finest. This ranks up there with blowing up the beached whale carcass with dynamite.

      What kills me is that they decided not to do a full inventory to determine if there were any other chemicals that might be a problem.

      Why would they? When was the last time a government employee paid any price whatsoever for such incompetence?

The silence is deafening. What motivation does the party of climate consciousness have to stay quiet about an unfolding disaster within our borders?

Perhaps ensuring the safety of Ohioans and addressing the damage this will do to our already strained food supply takes a backseat to other, more “global” concerns? Maybe bugs are more resistant to these chemicals? Ask Klaus Schwab.

Typical speed involved with that sort of train is 40mph, or lower if there’s some sort of track restriction in that segment.

Norfolk Southern might be the victim (not the legal victim of course) in that it’s the car in question that’s the problem, and they may have just gotten it from another carrier. People maintain the cars in sort of a ritual way – check this that and that and if it all checks, it’s good to go. I’m not sure who’s responsible for that, if it’s just casual checks in freight yards or what.

The wheels that freight cars ride on come right off. just held on by gravity and the weight of the car, so aren’t even strictly part of the car. If a truck looks damaged they just lift up the car and slip another one under it. Curious level liability problem.

Calm down, guys. None of the chemicals are especially hazardous unless your either in the scare monger class trying to get on TV or California where everything causes cancer.

“Unstoppable” (2010) was based on a runaway freight in Ohio, heading south to Columbus with nobody on board. The news reported it as carrying flammable materials, which later turned out to be wood. They stopped it on a hill by boarding it there, in any case. The movie added hazardous materials and marriage difficulties and more speed.

Too many what’re people working construction?

Clearly mr butt hasn’t been to Texas

I don’t understand why the train cars aren’t more disaster proof hauling this stuff

Note Western Washington pushed to ban coal trains because the dust might get in the air.

Some bio hazards are more bio-hazardy than others.

IF ONLY THERE HAD BEEN A GAS STOVE ONBOARD!!!!!!!

Could the derailment have gotten a little “help”?

“Federal authorities in Seattle on Monday charged two women with a terrorist attack on train tracks, suggesting they were working with an anarchist community to stand in solidarity with a Native American tribe to oppose the construction of a natural gas pipeline across the Canadian province of British Columbia by trying to derail trains in Washington state.”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-terrorism-train-track-derailment-anarchist-group

Why were these toxic chemicals on this train and where were they being taken?

There is a white person running DOT, poorly.

DEFUND THE EPA! It’s a worthless, bloated bureaucracy that does nothing to help the common people! I remember being in DC and you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting an EPA lawyer or employee. Ridiculous at how many there are. And they were the biggest a-holes. Pretentious, self-absorbed, and always wanting to bully. Just terrible people.

Buttiggeg is always missing in action on transportation related issues

Why the radio silence and zero aid from Biden and Pete over what may be the biggest eco disaster in our history? with life – animal, plant, and human – sickening and dying? And who knows how much area the chemical clouds will eventually affect? Who cares? These people are deplorable bitter clingers. Serves them right for voting wrong. And yes, I do believe them capable of thinking this way.