Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 607 posts

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#161

Post by xadhominemx »

realce wrote: post #133
xadhominemx wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is not a carcinogen in the air. They evacuated the town while they performed the controlled burn, but now the combustion products (not really carcinogens) have dispersed and it’s safe to return.

So you would feel fine having your kids live their day-to-day in this area? Would you buy a house 1 mile away from the epicenter?

Ya. It’s easy to measure the contamination and the spilled products have very short half lives in the air/soil. I would probably want to monitor my well water for a little while if I were in the immediate vicinity.

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#162

Post by claytongulick »

unethical_ban wrote: post #103
thepasswordis wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In theory, I don't see government ownership of society-critical industries with no opportunity for competition to be crazy. Tell me how you'd spin up a competing national rail line network.

Ayn Rand wrote a sci-fi/political philosophy book about this exact subject, named Atlas Shrugged.

The main character in the book is a railroad executive struggling to keep her company afloat in the face of ruinous regulations that were designed to drive the rail systems towards nationalization.

The flip side of course, that she fails to address completely in that book, is unethical behavior by private industry, such as super trains with one engineer, unsafe working conditions, etc...

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#163

Post by pessimizer »

themitigating wrote: post #63
passwordoops wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Biden, through the Department of Transport and Pete Buttigieg couldn't put those regulations back in place? Or were right in forcing striking rail workers back to work instead of, oh I don't know, supported them on basic issues like safety? Yes Republicans are bad. But so are Dems, and their voters refusing to hold the party accountable for obvious failures. It's why the country is going to shift. R's pass bad pol…

How do you know the crash was the result of missing regulations? Republicans are against government regulations,you know "big government" and all that, so why would they do a better job?

Democrats are against government regulation, they worship B. Clinton and he deregulated everything.

Both US parties, as usual, support regulation that damages the other party's prospects or damages the competitors of their own donors.

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#164

Post by lm28469 »

ajross wrote: post #73
Workaccount2 wrote: post #15

Before everyone loses there mind, because this story has oddly been on blast 2 weeks after the incident: VC is a gas a room temperature. None of the VC cars were ruptured in the crash. They were vented and ignited by workers to avoid explosion. Burning VC produces carbon oxides, HCl, phosgene, and formaldehyde. HCl, Phosgene become hydrochloric acid in the atmosphere. The total amount of hydrochloric acid this could…

This take needs more coverage. In fact the current freakout is almost entirely due to the deliberate burn and the big plume it caused, with almost no one taking the time to explain that the combustion products are simply much safer than the products that were leaking. But everyone wants to cover how it smells in East Palestine and not what the options were. (And to everyone replying with "But it's ACTUALLY about the…

> This train was sitting in a pile for more than a week and no one cared.

No one cared because it wasn't reported in the media, even today it barely is. I've seen locals talk about it since day 1 on reddit and twitter. The fact that it didn't make much noise in the media until now is a good indicator of authorities trying to minimise the issue.

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#165

Post by anotherman554 »

jsonne wrote: post #67

I've been seeing content on Tiktok where even 100 miles away they're seeing small dead fish which is apparently according to the folks making the videos a massive red flag. In general I grow super weary of companies and the government downplaying these sorts of things. It seems to constantly follow the pattern of people saying "It's not that bad" and then only years later do we actually see the horrific health and en…

"I've been seeing content on Tiktok where even 100 miles away they're seeing small dead fish which is apparently according to the folks making the videos a massive red flag."

I wouldn't bother watching a Tiktok video unless the video maker is an environmental professional. Otherwise this is just the blind leading the blind.

Here's a legal definition of environmental professional used by developers when they do a environmental assessment, from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_I_environmental_site_ass...:

Someone with:

a current Professional Engineer's or Professional Geologist's license or registration from a state or U.S. territory with 3 years equivalent full-time experience;

or

a Baccalaureate or higher degree from an accredited institution of higher education in a discipline of engineering or science and 5 years equivalent full-time experience;

or

have the equivalent of 10 years full-time experience.

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#166

Post by ck2 »

This happens every day around every fracking site on a smaller scale but add them all up and it's even bigger than the train.

Oddly no-one seems to care about that.

If the train was carrying gasoline would people say "oh well what can you do, we need gas"

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#167

Post by stronglikedan »

smcl wrote: post #100
jsonne wrote: post #67

I've been seeing content on Tiktok where even 100 miles away they're seeing small dead fish which is apparently according to the folks making the videos a massive red flag. In general I grow super weary of companies and the government downplaying these sorts of things. It seems to constantly follow the pattern of people saying "It's not that bad" and then only years later do we actually see the horrific health and en…

Are you: - weary of these getting downplayed (pron. wee-ree = you are tired of it) - wary of these getting downplayed (pron. way-ray = you are suspicious of it)

Both are valid phrases, and both can be true, even at the same time.

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#168

Post by lm28469 »

xadhominemx wrote: post #115
duffyjp wrote: post #78

I just watched the HBO Chernobyl miniseries (excellent, btw) and the parallels to the initial lack of action to a huge public health threat is chilling. If there is a carcinogen in the air, get people out of there!

There is not a carcinogen in the air. They evacuated the town while they performed the controlled burn, but now the combustion products (not really carcinogens) have dispersed and it’s safe to return.

Just like 911's ground zero was safe ;) nothing to see, move along, uh what cancers are you talking about ?? you must be imagining it

Re: Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment

#170

Post by petesergeant »

whamlastxmas wrote: post #157
commandlinefan wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's what he's saying - but rather that Chinese-controlled media is blowing this out of proportion to distract you from the chinese spy balloon story (reserving judgment whether this is actually the case - it's plausible, but would still be surprising - I just think that's what OP is trying to say, not that the balloon itself had anything to do with the derailment).

I understand his intended message, I was just being snarky, which I accept is crappy of me and against the guidelines. Just tired of the mindless xenophobia and American exceptionalism despite the US being objectively one of the most, if the the most, problematic countries on the planet.

> Just tired of the mindless xenophobia and American exceptionalism

The BBC is not American, though?

Post reply on HN