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EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

epa.gov

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Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Railroad_Admin... This one? Maybe I missed it in my brief skim but I don't see anything negative

Yeah. The Wikipedia page isn't all that great on this topic; I'm going off of my recollections from the book American Railroads , although it's been a few decades since I last read it.

If you know of any material that's available on the internet I would be glad to read it

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. The Wikipedia page isn't all that great on this topic; I'm going off of my recollections from the book American Railroads , although it's been a few decades since I last read it.

If you know of any material that's available on the internet I would be glad to read it

I apologize, because I don't know of any off the top of my head.

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Temporary housing for the residents most directly in harms way. Low interest loans for people needing to relocate permanently. Both can help people avoid long term health consequences if this is as dangerous as some observers claim.

The Ohio state budget is 24 Billion dollars. I think they could come up with a million dollars or two to cover housing and transportation for those that want it. We are talking about a small number of people here. If every family wanted to stay away, they could give $10,000 to each for with 0.1% of the state budget.

I would assume most of those funds ($24B) are already allocated to various programs. The US Federal government OTOH has departments and funds set aside for such larger scale unexpected disasters. Let's also not forget the infinite money printer.

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#244
post #83
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is out of date, but: > There is also the theoretical possibility of burning vinyl chloride forming dioxins which are known carcinogens. So far, no dioxins have been detected. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-and-nutrition-histo...

Have they tested for dioxins? Can you share?

Yes, they have been testing and sharing with plenty of news outlets if you care enough to seek it out. The chemicals were burned off and have now dispersed, there is no more source to worry about for anything airborne. It's too bad this is an area of mostly poor, uneducated, right wingers that don't probably know much about chemistry or analytical thinking. Perhaps they could put their energy into ensuring the groundwater does not become contaminated instead of carrying on about things that don't matter, such as Joe Biden and air pollution.

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Vinyl chloride is a mutagen having clastogenic effects which affect lymphocyte chromosomal structure.[20][22] Vinyl chloride is a Group 1 human carcinogen posing elevated risks of rare angiosarcoma, brain and lung tumors, and malignant haematopoeitic lymphatic tumors.[23] Chronic exposure leads to common forms of respiratory failure (emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis) and focused hepatotoxicity (hepatomegaly, hepatic f…

Yes, they found elevated rates of some cancers in people who spent their careers in poorly ventilated vinyl chloride production facilities. For the sort of concentrations and durations we’re talking about in East Palestine, it’s not carcinogenic.

It's nice to see someone using some logic in here, there is a ton of ignorance. The only issue is that people always need to find someone to blame. Most aren't going to take facts like you have provided and use that in their assessment of the situation. My main concern would be the groundwater if anything, not the byproducts of combustion that have long blown away in the wind, or the fact Joe Biden didn't come walk around the town. I can imagine the town hall meetings are full of ignorant fools who just want to blame and be angry or political.

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple months ago I watched an amateur train nerd on youtube cover a derailment that dumped a load of bitumin/tar into a river and destroyed a bridge. This kind of thing happens pretty commonly. No national news covered it, only a couple of local news stations, at least from what I could find on youtube/googling. It's confusing to me why this specific incident got so much attention.

Link? That sounds like a channel I’d be interested in And this got the attention it did because it’s far more severe then one load of tar/bitumen in a river - and far more toxic made potentially worse from the choice to. Burn it off to clear the tracks faster

Youtube has a lot of them.

Here's one about a derailment in Nashville. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dZT7TTQqb4

Here's the one I mentioned about a derailment in middle of nowhere Iowa that dumped tar into the creek. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HpL0Xk9jTI

Here's one of those local news reports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_pKVdv-Y6Y

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. There is no one in East Palestine who got sick from this. There's many derailments throughout the country and chemical spills of other sorts have happened many times.

People's dogs and cats just up and died. Last time I checked humans are also mammals that breath.

The chemical was especially toxic to certain types of animals (notably fish) but much less toxic to humans.

Here's a video on that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b19lpkjUBrM

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#248
post #98

I'm finding it difficult to find objective assessments of the impact of what has happened in East Palestine. It seems like there are interests in dismissing the impacts entirely, but there are others that seems to want to overstate the impacts significantly. Does anyone else feel this way?

Other than introducing FUD about the cleanup costs, why would you believe there is overstatement on the impact of the disaster? What metric has you doubting the impact statement? What are your qualifications to make this assessment?

It's being pretty actively done by politicians on one side. I've seen lots trying to somehow blame Biden for it for example even though it's completely irrelevant.

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#249

Why isn't the EPA offering trailers outside of town to any worried residents? News reports indicate that people seem to be being poisoned in their homes and staying because they have no other place to go. Edit: Jeesh, of course I mean "why aren't the Feds overall offering trailers". I get the impression the EPA is currently organizing the remediation but that's a side-issue, darn it.

I have read that the governor of the state isn't requesting much in the way of federal assistance, and hasn't yet declared a state of emergency, which may or may not be a prerequisite for such federal action. That being said, it seems to me that the entire situation is being used as a political football, which makes things murky. What everyone seems to agree on is that the residents on the ground are not getting the…

"Hasn't yet"? You do realize that things have completely dispersed at this point and the very transient burn was weeks ago right? The event is long over.

Re: EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

#250
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phosgene also has very low environmental persistence. I think the actual amount of dioxin created from combustion of vinyl chloride monomer at atmospheric pressure is very low. In any event, both were dispersed into the atmosphere at concentrations that pose(d) very little danger to people outside of the temporary evacuation zone.

I stand corrected. They did a great job and no one in East Palestine is sick

>no one in East Palestine is sick

Gastrointestinal bleeding

https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1626288682326958083

Family including three year old child diagnosed respiratory infections

https://twitter.com/NewsNation/status/1625679079520325633

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