22 Comments

I rarely send links but this story is illustrated most vividly by the astonishing photographs taken from airplanes flying over the affected area. A picture truely is worth alot in comprehending the scope of the disaster. Please check what you would have seen if you had been flying high above the derailment

https://patrickwitty.substack.com/p/the-apocalypse-of-east-palestine?utm_medium=email

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Thank you for a concise--and (importantly) understandable summary, Dr. Jetelina! We seem to be living in an era of declining public trust in (the institutions of) public health (or maybe it's that the voices expressing distrust are getting louder). Competent timely responses to crises is critical and so is communication that actually helps people understand what we know, what we don't know, and how we plan to close that gap. Critics, meanwhile, often seem to be extremely competent in communicating fear and distrust in easy-to-digest sound-bite form (of course, they can still be making valid points). So thank you for pointing the way!

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founding

I have deep and abiding faith in this country so I expect that all efforts will be made to ensure that these residents get all the justice that the people of Flint, MI have gotten.

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I am disappointed in this email. I am left with no understanding if the worrisome threshold standards you shared were breached.

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Thank you for this clear post that summarizes the different phases of the accident. This is a terrible tragedy for so many people, and it's sad to read that there's been so little communication.

It's incongruous that "the Ohio Department of Natural Resources recently reported more than 43,000 dead fish within 7 miles of the crash" yet "EPA is reporting that the drinking water is safe at the time."

If I lived anywhere within a 60 mile radius of the accident, I would assume that if the water is not safe for the fish, it's also not safe for people to drink.

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And it isn't just the aquatic fanua (and possibly flora) that were affected. It will cascade into the entire terrestrial ecosystem through predators and scavengers as well as particulates that are ingested by herbivores and even by insects etc etc etc.....

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I tried to untangle the "train should have had better brakes" thing...

https://blerfblog.blogspot.com/2023/02/just-stop-it-train-brakes.html?m=1

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Thank you for this clear, organized presentation! You are a treasure.

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founding

(1) While you both give an excellent background on understanding the situation. You suggest that in the interest of good transparency that "the EPA is sharing their air monitoring data here. But I encourage the EPA to “translate” this data for residents to understand their associated risks.” I used the link and found nothing I could really interpret. First one has to correlate both the proximity and timing of the sample site to the train wreck. Secondly the EPA seemed to have measured VOCs generally and PM2.5 and 10 generally and NOT phosgene, dioxins etc in particular. Insofar as you did not attempt to interpret the EPA data, even to say it was reassuring, am I correct that you did not have insight into the meaning of the posted data? If you did, I wish you had made an explicit statement about what it means.

(2) I have not done a literature search lately, but the last time I looked knowledge about long term chronic exposure to the whole range of VOCs, is sorely lacking, giving us little basis to reassure the residents. Is this not true?

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Thank you so much for covering this. I live about 60 miles east of this site and we have heard NOTHING from our local officials on the impact this might have to our area. A fantastic hyper local news outlet (called the Portager) has covered it as much as possible, but it seems that there is just not much information being communicated about this incident.

Another Norfolk Southern train derailed in another part of Ohio this weekend, but, thankfully, it was not carrying toxic chemicals according to an NPR article (https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161262824/train-derailment-springfield-ohio#:~:text=A%20Norfolk%20Southern%20train%20derailed,several%20state%20and%20local%20agencies.).

I have read that security guidelines for rail transport were eased under the Trump administration and, had these not been eased, this spill would likely not have happened. :-(

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Dr. Allen was the first (only?) person to pick up on the Paulsboro NJ derailment lessons.

There has been so much finger pointing and dunking going on with this story, it's hard to get solid information.

Thanks again!

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Response to Katelyn and Joe Allen on Vinyl Chloride release and COVID ventilation

Thank you for providing the public with information on these important subjects. Based on my work in these areas, here’s some additional considerations:

- Because vinyl chloride has been established to be carcinogenic in occupational studies, any detectable community exposure presents a health risk, and I haven’t seen data reported on this. Publishing a summary of available data would be helpful to the public.

- COVID epidemiology suggests that simply recommending enhanced ventilation and filtration imay not be effective and more nuanced strategies are needed, especially in larger buildings. I’m finalizing a paper on this for ASHRAE Journal and would appreciate your comments. I can forward this for your review, if interested.

- I’d also be glad to collaborate with you on future reporting of issues within my expertise.

Ed Light, CIH

President, Building Dynamics, LLC [www.Building-Dynamics.com]

ELight@Building-Dynamics.com

(240) 899-6926

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founding

Such interesting comments and images. As I do not have television I wonder if those images from airplanes were included in the news coverage. Seems I might have noticed if an email mentioned the images. Any reports from you TV addicts?

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Thank you!

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