Residents flood public health session in East Palestine

Mar 20, 2023

Jun 5, 2023

EAST PALESTINE — In the nearly four months since a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed and led to a vent and burn of chemicals over the village, the number of residents from East Palestine and the surrounding communities who say they are experiencing adverse health reactions from the events have grown — so has their list of symptoms. On Thursday, those health concerns were finally addressed during a packed informational session held by the Region 5 Environmental Protection Agency at The Way Station inside East Palestine's First United Presbyterian Church.

The session was the sixth installment of the weekly informational series but the first to focus on public health as Aubrey Miller, who leads the Disaster Research Response Program at the National Institute of Health, and University of Kentucky College of Public Health environmental scientist Erin Haynes listened to and answered residents’ questions. The first five sessions focused on soil sampling, air monitoring, private-well testing, impacts on ground and surface water and remediation efforts at the derailment site itself, but nearly all of the concerns voiced doing each session's question-and-answer portion were centered around health concerns. The overwhelming health concerns led the EPA to put together a two-part public health forum.

"This is what you guys have been asking for," EPA coordinator Mark Durno said. "This is the first of two-, maybe three-part public health series. We’ve been doing public informational sessions for the past six weeks. The whole idea is to help you understand the different pieces of the response that have been happening in your community and where we are with progress.

A lot of progress has been made, but there is still a ton to do and one of the things that is a priority for us is tackling the public health concerns."

Haynes has been tackling those concerns independently since early April when she launched the East Palestine Train Derailment Health Study, an online health tracking survey to learn more about the impacts, both short and long term, on community health in the wake of the derailment. Haynes, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the College of Public Health, is conducting a survey open to anyone aged 18 or older in Columbiana, Mahoning, Stark, Carroll and Jefferson counties in Ohio and residents of Beaver and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania and Hancock County in West Virginia.

"We are in this for the long haul. I don't want to let you go until you know what the exposures may have been and what possible health outcomes you may be facing now and into the future," Haynes said. "This survey is the beginning point. The NIH is a funding institute. Funding this survey is the first step and then we want to take it further."

That includes figuring out what the biomarkers of exposure are. To accomplish that, Haynes wants to put together a small group of residents to collect blood and urine samples from in July.

"We are going to be looking for potential biomarkers of exposure and this small subset and that will tell us if we need to go bigger and do a larger broad scale study," Haynes said. "I am really excited in a comprehensive way so we can give you answers. I know individuals (have been tested for biomarkers) but I want to see what it looks like in a group and in line with the survey."

Haynes is also asking about 100 of the survey participants to wear a wristband for a week that can absorb some chemicals from the environment. Those wristbands will then be analyzed by Duke University.

"You haven't seen this work yet and you may have not heard of it yet, but there are many scientists across the U.S. who deeply care and who have been building projects to provide you with assistance," Haynes said. "I wish it didn't take so long to provide them and bring them to your community, but it also takes time to figure out what we need to do because we want to do it right and so that we are done, you are closer to answers. I want to take questions and I would love to hear dialogue."

For residents who have felt as if their health concerns have been ignored, Haynes’ eagerness to hear their experiences and listen to their symptoms — headaches, rashes, nosebleeds, fatigue, respiratory irritation and digestive issues — was a breath of fresh air. Haynes also was not dismissive of urinalysis results that residents insist prove ongoing exposure to vinyl chloride with high levels of thiodiglycolic acid or vinyl chloride metabolite.

"Vinyl chloride should have definitely been gone; however, some of the residents have received tests that show the vinyl chloride metabolite in their urine," Haynes said. "The question is where is it coming from. It may be from other sources and maybe their exposure is still occurring. They are still digging and moving soil, so I don't know. We just don't know and it's definitely worth pursuing."

As for the NIH, that organization, too, is hoping to complete health tracking in the near future with what is called "a rapid workshop." The workshop is to understand the health impact of the rail disaster and will be held in partnership with the National Academies (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine) who provide expert advice to the U.S. government on issues of science, health and engineering.

"We are currently working with the Academies to have them develop a rapid workshop in response to the East Palestine train derailment," Miller said. "The experts will come together be called upon and charged with looking at all the available information from the community, exposures, health impacts, the types of chemicals that were known to be released and may have been formed and to make recommendations, based on their experience and expertise and available information, about research opportunities and health surveillance that may be needed and essentially provide a summary report to the community, to the public and to the agencies."

U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Marietta) who was in Columbiana County earlier in the day, stuck around the area to attend Thursday's session.

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