Toxic chemicals from Ohio train derailment lingered in buildings for months

Equipment installed at various points along contaminated creeks to aerate the water ended up releasing chemicals into the air.

Unnaturally however, the equipment used for cleaning the creeks also transferred chemicals from the water into the air. Residents near aeration equipment, which injects air into water, in part to help fish survive, complained of odors entering their homes and experiencing health problems. Our study shows the chemicals in the air may have been up to 2 to 25 times higher near these aerators.

Over the four-month study period, rain and the actions of contractors increasing and decreasing water flow also stirred up the creeks, releasing more chemicals into the air.

Steps to protect public health in future disasters

As with past disasters, what happened in East Palestine offers many lessons for communities.

One of the most important is for communities to demand an exposure pathway diagram immediately after a chemical incident occurs. An illustration can help the community recognize potential threats, whether from the air or from culverts beneath their buildings, and see where testing and guidance are needed.

A diagram illustrates chemical exposure pathways in East Palestine. Visualizing these risks can help residents and communities figure out how to respond.

Monitoring the health of people exposed to the chemicals is also crucial. Because so many people became ill in and around East Palestine, and because testing overseen by government agencies did not pinpoint the exact conditions responsible for the illnesses, we recommend long-term medical monitoring for those affected.

People closest to the disaster site—those who lived in, worked in or visited buildings that became contaminated—likely experienced the greatest exposures. Railroad workers, government workers, cleanup workers, visitors and residents in Ohio and Pennsylvania were among those reporting health problems. Norfolk Southern and one contractor were cited for failing to protect workers from exposure.

Indoor building contamination can be a long-term problem. Just like with wildfire smoke, affected buildings need to be professionally cleaned because the chemicals can remain for months.

Building exteriors also need to be decontaminated. Chemicals may continue to release from surfaces into the air.

A sheen from the chemical spill was still evident on a creek in East Palestine on March 24, 2024, more than a month after the derailment.

There is also a need for better methods and evidence-based policies to rapidly identify chemical exposures. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, months after approving the use of handheld air testing devices to screen homes, determined that those chemical detectors could not have reliably alerted to butyl acrylate at all levels that can cause health problems. Not all the chemicals spilled were monitored for in buildings.

For complex disasters, we recommend calling in experts from outside the responding agencies and companies involved to provide the needed specialized expertise.

Andrew J. Whelton, Professor of Civil, Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.