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

Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

wkbn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 136 posts

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#61

Post by shevis »

orange_joe wrote: post #23

It's worth mentioning the backdrop of this is the current drive toward PSR (precision scheduled railroading), which has meant overworking train engineers with improved "efficiencies" through extremely long trains, and overworked employees. This has greatly increased the value of the train companies on the stock market, but at the expense of the workers (this came to a head a few months ago with pending labor strikes…

This is yet another symptom of shareholders becoming the primary customer. The strong incentive for short-term profit results in strategic decision-making that is both financially riskier and more ethically dubious in the long term.

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#62

Post by madrush2014 »

fassssst wrote: post #24

It’s like people are living through "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. Thanks ChatGPT for helping me remember the book based on the general scenario: "White Noise" is a darkly comic novel that explores themes of death, consumerism, and technology. The story takes place in a small Midwestern town where a poisonous cloud, known as "The Nanny," is hanging over the area and threatening the lives of its residents. The protagon…

Interesting observation. I've read White Noise and a couple other DeLillo novels, it's a little difficult to describe, but I was put in a very strange state of mind after reading his work, kind of like glimpsing some hidden inner reality. Somewhat like The Stand by Stephen King.

We had a fertilizer plant go up in flames last year about this time in Winston-Salem, NC, which is 50 miles from us which was alarming even at this radius.

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#63

Post by photochemsyn »

mshake2 wrote: post #17

>“Smoke and chemicals from the train, that’s the only thing that can cause it, because it doesn’t just happen out of nowhere,” Holzer says. “The chemicals that we’re being told are safe in the air, that’s definitely not safe for the animals … or people.” >“All the readings we’ve been recording in the community have been at normal concentrations, normal background, what you would find in almost any community operating…

Or the people working for the EPA didn't want to get downwind of the plume themselves, so they took their air / water samples upwind of the mess, to avoid exposure (and maybe to make things look less bad as well) and called it a day. Really wouldn't be surprising.

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#64

Post by jplona »

ikiris wrote: post #48
ctrlaltdylan wrote: post #40

Grew up 30 miles west of East Palestine. My family is still there. So sad to see another struggling Midwest town dealt a death blow. It’s beautiful country even though it’s considered fly over and “blue collar” which is politically correct terminology for post-industrial poor. The EPA has roots from the Cuyahoga River fires. There was great progress made cleaning up the river and even turning portions of Northeast Oh…

how the hell is Ohio midwest?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States - The Background section has the explanation.

I've always understood it as a sort of historical anchoring bias. Compared to the areas that were settled during colonial times, Ohio was indeed "West" in people's minds, just less so than the Pacific coast.

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#65

Post by [deleted] »

ikiris wrote: post #48
ctrlaltdylan wrote: post #40

Grew up 30 miles west of East Palestine. My family is still there. So sad to see another struggling Midwest town dealt a death blow. It’s beautiful country even though it’s considered fly over and “blue collar” which is politically correct terminology for post-industrial poor. The EPA has roots from the Cuyahoga River fires. There was great progress made cleaning up the river and even turning portions of Northeast Oh…

how the hell is Ohio midwest?

[deleted]

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#67

Post by flandish »

mshake2 wrote: post #17

>“Smoke and chemicals from the train, that’s the only thing that can cause it, because it doesn’t just happen out of nowhere,” Holzer says. “The chemicals that we’re being told are safe in the air, that’s definitely not safe for the animals … or people.” >“All the readings we’ve been recording in the community have been at normal concentrations, normal background, what you would find in almost any community operating…

A corporation always lies. Start there. See where the liability is, then see who they’ve donated to…

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#68

Post by culi »

fassssst wrote: post #24

It’s like people are living through "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. Thanks ChatGPT for helping me remember the book based on the general scenario: "White Noise" is a darkly comic novel that explores themes of death, consumerism, and technology. The story takes place in a small Midwestern town where a poisonous cloud, known as "The Nanny," is hanging over the area and threatening the lives of its residents. The protagon…

The film adaptation of White Noise is about a freight train crashing and releasing toxic chemicals in the air and was filmed in Ohio around this area so yeah it seems like a very apt connection to make

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#69

Post by l3mure »

fassssst wrote: post #24

It’s like people are living through "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. Thanks ChatGPT for helping me remember the book based on the general scenario: "White Noise" is a darkly comic novel that explores themes of death, consumerism, and technology. The story takes place in a small Midwestern town where a poisonous cloud, known as "The Nanny," is hanging over the area and threatening the lives of its residents. The protagon…

> When Ben Ratner’s family signed up in 2021 to be extras in the movie “White Noise,” they thought it would be a fun distraction from their day-to-day life in blue-collar East Palestine, Ohio.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/health/ohio-train-derailment-...

Re: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment

#70

Post by [deleted] »

fassssst wrote: post #24

It’s like people are living through "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. Thanks ChatGPT for helping me remember the book based on the general scenario: "White Noise" is a darkly comic novel that explores themes of death, consumerism, and technology. The story takes place in a small Midwestern town where a poisonous cloud, known as "The Nanny," is hanging over the area and threatening the lives of its residents. The protagon…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN